Uprising
by K9oftheTwoStrings
Summary: Nanu has been receiving strange phone calls from a mysterious man called Giovanni who claims to have a "special project" regarding the future of the crime syndicate Team Rocket. With Nanu on Giovanni's side, it's now up to Ash, his friends, and some unlikely heroes from losing Nanu for good and to stop Team Rainbow Rocket's reign of terror. Anime/Game crossover AU.
1. Prologue

The time is midnight, Alolan time, and Po Town police officer and island kahuna Nanu can be found lounging back in his rolling chair at his desk, virtually prying his heavy, exhausted eyelids open every fifteen to twenty seconds to convince himself not to fall asleep just yet. Tonight was one of those late nights in which he had been assigned by his supervisor to remain at the station due to reports of "suspicious activity" nearby in which he needed to keep an eye out for, which, in Po Town, "suspicions activity" was not an incredibly uncommon occurrence.

 _Doesn't that idiot know that Team Skull virtually runs this dump and I'm just here to babysit them?_ Nanu thought to himself, fiddling around with the cord of the station's phone and tapping his fingertips on the underside of the faux wood desk top. _It's not like criminal activity is at an all time low here._ He took a deep breath in and yawned ferociously before anxiously propping himself up into a normal sitting position in his chair to get a better glimpse of the digital clock on the wall. It wasn't even 12:30 yet.

"Arceus, this shift is never gonna end." he grumbled under his breath, before resuming his previous position, "I've been here all night and I have nothing to report back, just like I suspected. Don't they know that it's cruel to keep an old man up this late as frequently as they do? Whatever. I'm going to bed." He then proceeded to turn off the small lamp perched on the side of his desk before getting himself situated in his chair and finally giving his eyes the rest they had been thirsting after since before the shift began. But only for a few measly minutes, as the shrill ring of the station's phone interrupted his delicious slumber. He flipped the switch to his desk lamp once more and yanked the phone off its docking station angrily as he sat upright in his seat.

"Po Town police department. This is Nanu speaking." he growled, putting a palm to his face in frustration.

"Nanu, it's been a while..."said an eerily familiar voice from over the phone. Nanu immediately recognized it.

"What do you want, Giovanni?" Nanu snapped, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and pointer finger while letting the other hand clench the phone's wire aggressively.

"Now, Nanu, is that any way to greet your long-absent friend?" Giovanni wickedly snickered while stroking the top of his beloved Persian's head.

"I thought I told you to never call here again, especially while I'm working."

The criminal mastermind let out a cackle, "No, I don't recall you ever saying that." he teased, "Now, listen, I've beginning to formulate a highly important mission and I am in desperate need of-"

"If you're looking for extra assistance, don't bother."

"Oh, no, that's not at all what I came here to ask you for! I just need one tiny, little favor from you."

"I don't think I've made myself clear- I refuse to continue to do your dirty work. My days of being your puppet are over, Giovanni. Good night."

"What a pity. And to think, you could have made millions as long as you had agreed to doing one last chore for me..."

Nanu's interest was beginning to be piqued, "And what exactly would I be doing for you, sir?" He asked.

"Oh, it's nothing really," Giovanni replied, nonchalantly, "I'd just like for you to tell me whatever it is you know about a specific Alolan Pokémon, uh, by the name of 'Cosmog'."

Nanu raised an eyebrow, "Cosmog?" he asked, "Look, all I know is that there is currently one presiding in a laboratory in Aether Headquarters."

"Thank you, Nanu. That is all I needed to know."

"And uh, how come you're interested in such a Pokémon? From what I've heard, it doesn't seem like a very worthwhile Pokémon to steal." Nanu asked.

"Oh, and that is where you're wrong, my old friend."Giovanni replied, "You see, I've managed to hack into Aether's computer server and was able to access some of the documents containing data about this Pokémon, and from what their extensive research has shown, it is quite the opposite of invaluable. According to studies, Cosmog possesses the ability to create holes in our dimension and to change time and space in and of itself. Which, is why, it is just the Pokémon I need for my project."

"With all due respect, sir, what is this 'project' that you speak of?"

Giovanni smiled, "Stop by the Team Rocket base in Kanto sometime and I'll be glad show you."


	2. Chapter 1

It was an unusually hot day in the Alolan Islands; a day hotter than it had ever before the entire summer. However it appeared that the heatwave had very little effect on the performance of young Trial Captain Acerola and her Pokémon partner, Gengar. They appeared to be in the middle of a heated battle between Team Rocket's Jessie and her Mimikyu, and by the looks of it, it could be anyone's match. That is, if one of them didn't break their focus. But as the sun scorched the battlefield, both of the young women appeared unaffected by the uncomfortably high temperatures; besides, of course, the excretion of sweat off their skin; putting all of their concentration in the battle at hand. Both Acerola and Jessie commanded their Pokémon in battle with skill, elegance, and style, using their opponents moves as catalysts to quickly strengthen the impact of their own attacks- tactics commonly used only by human martial artists. Jessie's teammates, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet, were watching the battle closely from a safe distance, cheering her on.

"Your Mimikyu is putting up a good fight, Jessie!" Acerola shouted across the battlefield, wiping sweat from her forehead, "You seemed to have followed my advice from the last time we battled!"

"Thanks." The magenta-haired villainess, clad in civilian clothing replied with a playfully boastful grin, "But Mimikyu and I are just getting started!" She then redirected her full attention to the battling ghost-types in the center of the dirt field and narrowing her eyes commanded her Pokémon to use Shadow Ball.

"Gengar!" The trial captain commanded, "Use your Shadow Ball too!"

The ghostly Pokémon agreed and let out a Shadow Ball of its own, slamming into Mimikyu's before it could make impact. They aggressively collided with one another, fighting each other to determine which one was the strongest. Although Gengar's appeared to be stronger, Jessie saw this as the perfect advantage. She ordered Mimikyu to use an attack to knock the strongest of the two into Gengar as its attention still appeared to be divided. Mimikyu happily obeyed its trainer and did as it was told to, using a super-charged Wood Hammer to slam into the stronger Shadow Ball. However, much to Jessie's dismay, instead of producing the desired result, Acerola ordered Gengar to dodge Mimikyu's seemingly foolproof attack, and eventually sending another Shadow Ball out to attack a somewhat stupefied Mimikyu, sending it flying until it hit the ground near its trainer's feet.

James and Meowth gasped in horror. "Oy Vey!" Meowth shrieked, holding his cream-colored paws up to his face in astonishment, "Dat was quite da hit!"

"I'll say!" James replied, biting his nails a bit, "and to think, Mimikyu's attack seemed like it couldn't have possibly failed and yet its opponent appears to be much stronger than I had expected!"

Meowth turned around to look at his second human counterpart. "Why does dat sound da story of our lives?" he mumbled, slightly underwhelmed.

Too fired up to notice Meowth's comment on the team's seemingly never-ending failing streak, James cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted and let out a cheer: "You can do it, Jessie! Show Acerola who's boss!"

"WOOOOOOBBUFFET!" Jessie's over-enthusiastic Pokémon shouted, mimicking James' stance and expression.

Upon Gengar's stubby clawed feet hitting the ground after an flawless dodging of Mimikyu's Wood Hammer/Shadow Ball combination, Acerola yelled out to her opponent once more: "Nice try, Jessie! But due to Mimikyu's performance, I can tell that both your and your Pokémon's concentration is wavering!"

"As if!" Jessie growled competitively as Mimikyu jumped back to its 'feet', preparing itself to resume combat. She looked at her near exhausted Pokémon with compassion; it had taken quite the blow from Gengar's nasty Shadow Ball attack, however, it still looked like it had enough energy to do exactly what she had wanted it to do, and what indirectly, Acerola wanted it to do: use its newly-discovered Z Power. She looked at the costume-clad Pokémon once more, and recognizing its determination, she narrowed her eyes, and assumed the Mimikyunium Z stance, activating the Z ring on her wrist, and boosting Mimikyu's aura.

James and Meowth gasped: "Could it be?!" they said, anxiously and in unison.

"Mimikyu! Full power now!" She shouted, as she performed the pose flawlessly. As Jessie danced away from across the battlefield, Acerola smiled. Excellent, she thought, She's doing exactly what I had told her to do. Her student and her Pokémon seemed in just about perfect sync with one another, and had come a long way since their first training session together. Acerola was very much looking forward to seeing how this would play out. As soon as the pose was complete, Jessie shouted out to Mimikyu, commanding it to use its Z-Move. "Mimikyu!" She shouted, "Use Let's Snuggle Forever!"

As soon as it heard the command, Mimikyu leaped into action. The lower half of its Pikachu disguise opened up and expanded, engulfing Gengar and surrounding it in complete darkness. Once inside, Mimikyu released a move similar to that of Play Rough but longer and more aggressive, until every inch of energy was sapped from its opponent's body. It then released Gengar and returned happily back to its trainer. Surprisingly enough, Gengar seemed like it hadn't been affected by the attack in any way; as soon as it was released, it stood there in a fighting stance, readying itself to attack once more.

"What?!" James shrieked, "I thought for sure that was a direct hit!"

Drat. Jessie hissed, We're not strong enough yet. She then turned to Mimikyu and replied: "Don't let your guard down just yet, Mimikyu- it's weak, but that still doesn't mean it won't attack."

Still shocked that Mimikyu's Z Move appeared to have little effect on the opposing Gengar, Meowth squinted his almond-shaped eyes and took a better look at the Pokémon at the opposite side of the battlefield. Upon a closer inspection, Gengar wasn't as strong as he had thought- he noticed that it was beginning to pant, and its confident stance was beginning to falter. Hold on... he thought, Jess still could have da uppah hand in dis...

For the next ten seconds, Jessie and Acerola and their respective Pokémon stared at one another, wondering who would make the next move. Just like before they had started, it appeared to be anyone's game. But just when both trainers thought that this defensive battle would never end, Gengar began to tremble and eventually collapsed in exhaustion. Jessie couldn't believe her eyes. W-We did it! She thought as an ecstatic smile ran across her face.

James, who had now assumed the role of referee, raised his right hand and enthusiastically shouted: "Gengar is unable to battle! Mimikyu wins!" He could barely contain his excitement- he sounded more like a giggling schoolgirl than an impartial Pokémon battle referee.

Jessie let out an adorably enthusiastic squeal and jumped into the air with joy, raising her own right hand and using her fingers to make the letter V for 'victory'. "Yay!" She shouted with joy, picking up Mimikyu and spinning it around giddily, "We did it, Mimikyu! We finally learned how to use our Z Move!"

James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet, ran over to their beloved partner and her Pokémon with tears in their eyes. They were so overjoyed they could have practically skipped over to her. As soon as they had gotten within a few feet of her, they all jumped on top of her, wrapping her in their arms in a congratulatory group hug.

"OH JESSIE, I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" James sobbed, smushing his blushing cheeks against her own.

"YEAH!" Meowth shouted tearfully, "You and Mimikyu really rocked dis battle!"

Acerola withdrew her fainted Pokémon and placed it in its Pokeball for a nice rest, and then proceeded to walk over to her battling partner, clapping her hands in excitement and pride. "Congratulations, Jessie!" she replied, joining in on their group hug, "Your very first successful Z Move!"

Jessie blushed pridefully and smiled, "Thank you! What I can't believe is that we finally mastered it! And to think, this was just the first one!"

"You and Mimikyu have come a long way since the day we first started training together, and I'm just so glad that all of our hard work paid off!" She replied, briefly breaking away from the embrace. James and the others followed her lead a second after.

"Well, it kinda helps that we had the best teacher in all of Alola teaching us the ins and outs of using Z Moves, am I right?" She winked at the purple-haired preteen.

Acerola squealed and blushed, "Oh Jessie! You flatter me!" She squeaked, dismissing Jessie's comment with a simple swat of her hand, "But in truth, it was all you and Mimikyu! You and Mimikyu were in such perfect sync with one another, I could feel your hearts practically becoming one while watching you battle!"

"Well duh!" Jessie snickered, "It's not like I didn't know that already! I was just trying to throw you a bone with that last compliment." She stuck out her tongue playfully to signify that she was joking. Acerola and the others laughed.

"Well! What are we just standing around here for?" Jessie asked, still chucking, "This calls for a celebration!"

"Absolutely!" James replied, "Three cheers for the victor! Hip hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Hip Hip!"

"Hooray!"

"Foooooor she's a jolly good trainer, for she's a jolly good trainer! For she's a jolly good traineeeeeeeeer!..."

"Whiiiiiiich nobody can deny!" A familiar sixth voice sang exclusively on its own. It was Nanu.

"Uncle Nanu!" Acerola shouted, waving to her uncle, "Jessie used her first EVER Z Move today!"

"I saw!" Nanu said as enthusiastically as he possibly could, "She did an excellent job today. In fact, I could hardly believe that it was her first time. You've done a great job with her and her Mimikyu, I'll say." he smiled a little.

"Thank you, Uncle!"

"Yes, thank you kahuna Nanu." Jessie replied, bowing as a sign of her respect and gratitude.

"Don't sweat it, kids." Nanu replied, smirking.

"Uncle Nanu!" Acerola replied, tugging on her uncle's hand slightly, "I was just about to suggest to Jessie and James that we should all go out and get celebratory malasadas to treat Jessie and Mimikyu for using their first Z Move together..."

The Rocket foursome's eyes immediately lit up: "Oooh!" They all exclaimed, immediately liking the sound of the trial captain's plan.

"Yes!" Jessie shouted, raising her hand high in the air, "I second that!"

"Me too!" Meowth replied, enthusiastically.

"You have my vote!" James cheered.

"WOOOOOOBUFFET!"

Acerola chuckled, "O-okay, looks like we're not PLANNING on getting malasadas anymore. Anyways, uncle, I thought you would like to come with us! You love malasadas! And judging by the time, the local bakery just baked a fresh batch! If we get there now, they'll be plenty left!"

Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet began to grow antsy. They were gigging madly, and were beginning to salivate; they wanted those malasadas and they wanted them BADLY.

Nanu froze at his niece's request and began to sweat harder than he was already been sweating. I'm supposed to be preparing for my emergency trip to Kanto to meet with Giovanni, I can't possibly do this right now! I mean, I don't want to disappoint her or anything but this task is much more important. She know that I'm a busy man with lots of other things to do other than...

"Uncle, are you okay?" Acerola asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"U-uh, I'm just fine, sweetie." He replied, a little nervously, trying desperately to come up with a good reason as to why he couldn't go on their malasada run, "I-I-I just have a lot of things on my mind right now, that's all. I've got a rather important errand to run right now, so I'm afraid I can't make it."

"Oh. Okay then." Acerola replied, her tone changing dramatically from enthusiastic to dejected.

Nanu sighed, "Look, Acerola, I'd love to come, but I have quite a few things to do right now and I'm not sure how I'm going to get them all done on time, especially before I go out of town for my business trip."

"Yeah, I understand." She replied, still sounding a little downtrodden, "Like you always say, 'business before pleasure'."

"Yeah... Well, I'm off. Have a great time with your friends, kiddo. Speaking of which, they're looking a little on the peckish side, don't you think? I'd better rush them to the malasada bakery right now if I were you. That is, if you don't want them to drown in a pool of their own spittle."

Acerola looked at the team- they were practically covered up to their eyeballs in drool. "Oh, yeah, you're right." She replied, laughing at how hilarious but disgusting the current scene in front of her was. "Um, well, uh, good bye, Uncle! See you back at home! Uh, let's go guys! The malasadas are waiting!"

"I thought you'd never say that!" They cheered, "Malasadas, here we come!"They began to sprint down the road happily, leaving Acerola in the dust by accident.

Acerola laughed. Leave it to Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet to run after food. She thought, but as she looked back at the road behind her, a sad and somewhat suspicious feeling began to overwhelm her once more. Why was Uncle in such a hurry though? He'd never miss a chance to go out to get malasadas with us! What's gotten into him lately? She sighed, Oh well. Better catch up with the others before they steamroll over everything in their path to the bakery. She hesitated for a second, but then began walking forward, lost in deep thought the entire way to the bakery.


	3. Chapter 2

By the time Acerola reached the front door of the malasada shop and stepped inside, her friends were already seated at a small round table in the corner of the shop, with a giant pink box, presumably filled with at least a dozen malasadas, sitting on its glossy, plastic table top. She sighed and let a small smile form on her lips, demonstrating that she wasn't surprised that they'd not only ordered everything, but were already eating their sugary loot by the time she only arrived. Jessie turned around and noticed Acerola beginning to walk over to their table.

"Hey kid!" she shouted, her mouth full of doughy, creamy, malasada goodness, "Where've you been? What took you so long- the world could've ended by the time you got here, geez!"

The purple-haired tween giggled a bit and eagerly pulled out a little white chair from underneath the table and hopped on top of the seat. She then reached into the box for the malasada she had been desperately pining for. Strangely enough, it felt empty. She craned her neck a little and pulled down the flaps of the box further to take a peek inside. Turns out, she was right: there was nothing left but the essence of powered sugar and a single dollop of vanilla cream that must have fallen out of one the doughnuts while it was being eaten presumably by James, due to the visible residue of a similar-looking white cream smeared across his upper lip. She stared at the foursome in mock disgust: "I can't believe you." She growled, trying to hold back hysterical laughter, "How many were in there? Like a dozen, I'm suspecting."

"Actually, dere were two dozen in dere." Meowth replied in a cocky tone, seemingly proud of the capacity of his and his teammates' guts.

"YOU ATE TWO DOZEN MALASADAS?!" Acerola cackled in a half-shriek and half-laugh, "IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES?! SERIOUSLY?! HOW COULD YOU?!"

Jessie, James, and Meowth started laughing along with her, "I know, I know! That was a LITTLE selfish of us" James said, holding up his hands up to his chest, "But to be fair, we didn't eat an entire two dozen malasadas…"

"Yeah! We only ate two-dozen-minus-one!" Meowth replied, showing the young girl a wrapped chocolate cream-filled malasada and holding it out for her to take, "See? We made sure ta save one jus for ya! Dat is, in case ya didn't get lost or die on somethin' on da way here."

Acerola laughed and took the Alolan delight from the feline Pokémon's sandy-colored paws, "Thanks guys, I knew you'd save one for me."

"We almost didn't." Jessie replied, biting the last bit of her sixth and final malasada that remained in her hand, "N-not because any of us three wanted another one it's just that I had to remind Wobbuffet that you were coming, and that you would want the last malasada for yourself because it would only be fair. Believe me, you should have seen the wrestling match we had over it."

Wobbuffet scowled and called out half of its name in shock. Leave it to Jessie to use him, a literal walking punching bag, as her scapegoat to try to cover her own sorry bum for being a greedy doughnut hogger. But, given its name in the Poxedex- the patient Pokémon- and the fact that he had been living with and putting up with her for Arceus knows how long, his trainer's comment soon became unimportant to him- water off of the Ducklett's back.

Acerola eagerly took a bite of her Malasada. The doughnut itself was so light and fluffy and the cream was sweet and fresh, and it was still surprisingly warm. She almost could completely understand why the Rocket foursome had eaten nearly six of them a piece! However, as she nibbled on her sweet treat, she soon became quiet and practically began to fixate on the food she had in her hands. The thought of Nanu missing their malasada run returned to her, and she soon became lost in the land of her own worried thoughts: _Nanu would have loved this. Chocolate is his favorite._ She thought, _it's too bad that Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet ate the rest of them- I would have liked to have kept one for safe keeping with me so that he could enjoy it too… I still don't understand why he couldn't come along with us. He would never deny going out for a treat, even if he was so busy that his piles of reports were twice as tall as him! I just don't know what's up with him! Maybe he…_

"Acerola?" James asked, mildly concerned, "Hey, Acerola, are you okay, sweetie?"

Meowth reached over the table as far as he could and waved a paw in front of the young girl's face: "Yoohoo! Earth ta Acerola!" She snapped out of her pensive thoughts upon Meowth's interference. She replied with a simple shocked humming noise.

"Oh good, she's back." Meowth replied, with a small snicker and a smile.

"Wait, what do you mean by that? I never even left the table?" Acerola asked in innocent uncertainty.

Jessie let out a dry giggle, "No, it's just that you started to stare at your malasada as you were eating it."

"Yeah, it looked like youse were stuck in yummy malasada land and we had ta getcha out before ya started nibblin' on da table or somethin'!" Meowth replied.

"Oh… It appears so…" Acerola said, looking down at the floor and grabbing ahold of her arm.

"Uh, hey, Acerola, you don't look too happy." James crooned, "Are you feeling not well?" All of the color had practically drained from her face- she looked quite the opposite of well.

"Was da cream bad or somethin'?" Meowth innocently asked.

Jessie reached across the table and put her hand to the young girl's forehead. "No fever…" she muttered.

She gently pushed the woman's hand off her forehead and resumed holding onto her own arm for comfort. "I'm not sick, Jessie…"

"Are you sure?" she insisted, "Take a look at yourself, girl! You're ghostly pale! I suggest that we get you back at home in bed ASAP." If there was ever a time where her nurse side had shown, it was right now.

"Jessie, please! I'm not sick! I'm just…"

"Just what, exactly?"

"I'm just worried, okay? About Uncle Nanu…"

Jessie, James, and Meowth's jaws dropped slightly, and their concerned eyes widened, "Why?" James inquired, "What do you think is the matter?"

The ghost-type trainer sighed and ran her fingers through her shoulder-length purple hair, "I don't know…" she sighed, "He's just not seeming like himself lately."

"Is this because he denied your request to go with us on our malasada run?" Jessie asked, "Because if it is, I can tell you, that people sometimes do get sincerely busy and that they might not have the time for…"

"It's not just that, Jessie, it's just… he's also been staying at work late at night, sometimes from two and three in the morning, just sitting at his desk. And the nights I've stayed with him in the station, I've overheard weird conversations he's had on the phone."

Jessie and James now looked more concerned than ever: "Who do you think he's been calling?" they asked, simultaneously.

"I don't know, but from what I've overheard, he lives in a different region. It sounds like they used to be really good friends or co-workers or something, and he keeps talking about him coming over to visit him so that he can take a look at the 'secret project' he's been planning for years that he needs his help on."

The magenta and lavender-haired criminals exchanged suspicious glances. By the looks of it, it appeared that they were communicating to each other in their thoughts:

 _That IS rather strange, Jessie._

 _I know, James. It's just out-and-out odd. And the way she had mentioned what's been going…_

 _Kinda makes it seem like…_

 _Hold on…_

 _Do you think?..._

 _Nanu's affiliated with us?_

Just the thought of Nanu being a Team Rocket affiliate both excited and worried them. It made their hearts pound and they felt a warm, bubbly sensation gurgling up inside of them, almost making it feel like they could explode in seconds. If Nanu was one of them, they could easily use him to their advantage to capture the twerp's coveted Pikachu, or at least have them back on the boss' good side. However, at the same time, they had grown to like Acerola so much in the short time they've been training together, and they had completely neglected to tell her that they were undercover members of Kanto's most powerful crime syndicate upon their meeting. Using her uncle, whom she loved so dearly, for their own personal gain seemed like a cheap trick and a dishonor to the little girl with which they had formed such a strong bond with. They were at a fork in the road and trying to choose the lesser of two evils seemed like a near impossible decision to them: Remain loyal to their organization and use Nanu to help increase their pay while breaking Acerola's heart or finding out what was wrong with Nanu and potentially stopping him, saving their relationship with Acerola, but risking them potentially being out of work. Regardless, they still wanted to help their friend and find out why Nanu was behaving so strangely, just so that they could mollify some of her worries. As soon as they came upon this unspoken decision, they nodded at one another and turned around to offer their plan to a worried Acerola:

"Acerola, I'm not entirely sure myself of who this person is or why he or she has been calling your uncle about a 'secret project', but it sounds suspicious. And that's why James, Meowth, and I are going to do everything in our power to find out who this person is and what they want with your uncle!" Jessie roared triumphantly.

Acerola gasped in glee, "R-really?" she asked in disbelief, shocked that her friends would do such a thing for her.

James nodded. "Just leave it to us!" he agreed, putting his hand on her shoulder for reassurance, "We'll find out what's up with Nanu!"

"Wow, guys!" she squeaked, "I-I don't know what else to say! Just… Just… Thank you!" she then hopped off of her chair and then proceeded to wrap the twosome in a hug, "Thank you for caring about me. I just know you're going to get to the bottom of this!"

Jessie and James looked at one another as the little girl still had her arms wrapped around them. There was a tinge of worry in both of their eyes. You could tell that they were still somewhat unsure of what to do. Acerola finally let them go and took a look at the clock on the wall: "Oh my goodness! Would you look at the time!" she replied, "I've got another trial I have to supervise back at the abandoned Thrifty Mega Mart! If I don't leave now, I'm gonna be fashionably late!"

"Well then, there's no use just sitting around here," Jessie nervously chuckled, "Go on over to your trial! I'd rather you get there on time and prevent you from getting stopped by the fashion police!"

"And don't you worry your pretty purple head, your mission is in good hands!" James called out, almost rushing his words.

"Thanks for everything guys! See-l you later!" Acerola replied, running over to the shop's front door.

"We'll have da latest scoop by da next time we see ya, we promise!" Meowth yelled.

Acerola bowed a final time to the foursome, smiled, and left the bakery in a hurry. When the door closed behind her, Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet dramatically flopped back down on their chairs in anguish.

"Uhhhh…" James groaned, "As much as I love Acerola, why did we have to get tangled up in all this mess!"

"Tangled up? This mess practically had our names written all over it! Need I remind you that the boss could potentially be involved in this matter as well?" Jessie hurriedly remarked, "If we go through with this, it could ruin everything we've worked for!"

"Jess is right," Meowth grumbled, "We're on da boss' choppin' block as it is already!"

"But at the same token, Acerola is our friend and we promised to help her. And even if Nanu's buddy-buddy with Giovanni, I'm not going to just turn on her by using her Uncle as our one-way ticket to Team Rocket fame and fortune. That's a dishonor to her and to ourselves. And unlike most of my fellow Team Rocket members, I value my dignity!"

"What dignity?" Meowth mumbled under his breath, resting his cheek in the palm of his right paw.

"And, on top of everything else, we don't exactly know for sure it's the boss Nanu's been talking to. It could be someone completely different!"

"Dat's true…"

"But still, if it IS the boss, we're gonna be in deep trouble with the boss. And quite frankly, that's the one kind of trouble I sincerely don't want to prepare for!"

"Uh, this is not the role I auditioned for when signing up for this cartoon…" Jessie hissed, "Other TV bad guys don't have a moral compass, why on earth did we have to be the three that did!"

"I dunno!" Meowth glowered, "Dat's a question for da writers, not us!"

"Guys, guys! Please!" James placated, "We'll never come up with a solution if we're at each other's throats!"

Jessie signed in defeat, "You're right, James- If we fight, we'll get nothing done. And believe me, we desperately need a decent plan with this task. We just need to take the time to sit and think."

The man, woman, and two Pokémon put their thumbs and pointer fingers (well, Wobbuffet just kind of put his flipper to his face as best as he could, but you get the picture) and entered into deep thought. After about a minute or two of sitting and thinking, Jessie slammed her face into the table in frustration.

"Uh!" the fiery agent fumed, banging her fists on the table top as she slouched over the table in frustration, "Thinking is HARD! How are we supposed to come up with a plan like this!"

The more emotional one signed, "I agree. I can't think when I'm stressed out!"

"You must be perpetually stressed out all of da time den, Jimmy…" the feline Pokémon grumbled, trying to put himself in a better humor.

After another few seconds of thinking, James' eyes widened to the size of tennis balls, "Uh, hey, guys?" he replied, smiling slightly.

"W-HAT, James?!" Jessie sneered in agony, "Don't you know I'm trying to come up with a plan as to-"

"That's exactly it! I have a plan for how we can find out what's up with Nanu, help Acerola, as well as get on the boss' good side, if he's even the person Nanu's been talking to."

"Go on, we're listening…"  
"Now, it needs a little tweaking here and there, but here's what I'm thinking…"


	4. Chapter 3

As the sunlight began to be swallowed up by the perpetual darkness of Po Town, Nanu creeped swiftly and with minimal sound to the gate of the city where the lunatics ran the asylum. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a grimy skeleton key bearing the logo of Team Skull, which its boss, Guzma, had "gifted to him out of gratitude" for being "the one who kept his Duckletts in a row" when he was "too busy to organize them". He hurriedly stuck the key into the keyhole and disappeared behind the gate as quickly as possible, not even allowing him a second to think. Immediately he was greeted by a gust of cold wind that seemed to chill him to the bone and thousands of tiny raindrops tapped onto his face and body. He had been in this Rattata's nest of a village hundreds, if not thousands of time before and it should have occurred to him that he should have brought a rain jacket, he thought, and that it was a rather stupid decision of him to make to leave the station without one. But now was not the time to be wishing for a rain jacket- he had a job to do and it needed to get done or else the boss might-! _No time to think of such dastardly things…_ Nanu thought, trying to refocus his mind once more, _I've gotta get to work._

He walked up to the front steps of the dilapidated mansion at the edge of the town that served as Team Skull's primary hideout, if you could even call it that. But as he continued to walk closer and closer to the door, this nagging feeling began to come back to him. There were thoughts of what would happen to him if he went through with this, and thoughts of what would happen if he didn't. And as his quivering hand reached for the skull-shaped knocker on the manor's towering front door, he felt his insides twist. It was beginning to dawn on him that he was overthinking things again. He had a feeling deep down in his gut that what he was about to do was quite possibly wrong, yet it was something that needed to be done. In reality, though he had given up the lifestyle long ago, he was still a criminal at heart: once a member of Team Rocket, always a member of Team Rocket. There was no end to him being Giovanni's favorite little puppet. And during that conversation he had with him that one fateful night, he had not only agreed to- but _promised_ Giovanni that he would do this one last chore for him, and though the decent person inside of him kept telling him not to do what he was going to do, it also reminded him that a promise is a promise and must be kept at all costs. So, reminding himself of this, he grabbed the sticky faux gold ring with his free hand, pulled it towards him and…

 _SPLASH!_

A giant stream of water was dumped right on top of his head! And judging by the shrill laughter hovering over him and stabbing at his eardrums, he immediately knew who the culprits of this disgusting prank were. Looking up only to pretend to be surprised, he noticed Zipp, Rapp, and Tupp- Guzma's favorite grunts- leaning out of an open window about a story above him and holding an empty plastic bucket.

"GRRR! WHEN WILL YOU THREE LITTLE CRETINS EVER LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Nanu roared, shaking his fist angrily at the threesome.

"Never!" Shouted the lone girl in the group, Rapp, cupping her hands to her mouth, even though it was covered with the black bandana of the organization.

"Yeah!" the heavy-set grunt Zipp mocked back.

"Yo, C'mon, guys," the trio's unofficial leader replied, sounding like he was trying to reason with his 'underlings', "We decided that we'se gonna give Mr. Nanu a break, didn't we?"

"Oh yeah, right, we did…" Rapp sighed before changing her tone dramatically: "We decided that we'd leave you alone after you're DEAD AND GONE, OLD MAN!"

The threesome then continued their hysterical laughter. Their shrill, mocking laughing resembled the yipping of a pack of Mightyenas, but quite possibly ten times louder and fifteen times worse. Nanu stuck his tongue out at them and rolled his eyes. He had no time to deal with petty teenagers, but unfortunately, Team Skull was crawling with them. _Doesn't Giovanni realize that Team Skull's nothing but a bunch of angsty teenagers and twenty-somethings who do nothing but petty crimes simply because they feel as if they need to rebel against their parents for them being raised as a bunch of raging-_ he let out a low, aggravated sigh and looked at the troublesome teens towering above him and replied: "Look, I'm not here to arrest you. I'm here because-"

"Yeah, we know why you're here." Tupp sneered, "It's that you wanna get in touch with the boss to try and ask 'em again about the whole 'Secret Project' business. Am I right or am I right?"

"Yes, that's precisely…" Nanu began before trailing off, "Wait, I never even mentioned anything about a 'Secret Plan' to Guzma yet. How did you three-"

"We were messing with the telephone wires to get your phone to shock you or somethin' two nights ago and accidentally wiretapped your call." Rapp replied, indifferently.

Nanu put his palm to his face in frustration, "Whatever. Just… can I _please_ speak to Guzma?"

The threesome looked at each other for a few seconds and whispered amongst themselves before coming up with their ultimatum. "Nah." They all said simultaneously.

"WHY YOU LITTLE-" Nanu snarled, preparing to scale the building before getting interrupted by Tupp:

"Hey, cool it, geezer, don't shoot the messengers here!" the oldest grunt said, attempting to mollify the police officer's anger, "We already presented the news to the boss and he says he doesn't want nothing to do with you or your 'Secret Plan'."

"What do you mean he doesn't want anything to do with-"

"Look, all I'm sayin' is that our man don't wanna get involved with the big boss man of Team Rocket. He just said it would be a bad decision."

"Did he ever say _why_ he feels as such?"

Tupp growled and rolled his bright blue eyes, "How many times do I have ta spell it out for you, old man? The boss just don't wanna join! Can you just respect that decision and move on with your life?" He sighed again and began to turn in the opposite direction, leading his gang back inside of the house. "Geez this dude's persistent as a…" he mumbled before fully walking back inside and ordering Zipp to shut and lock the window behind him to prevent more rain from getting into the house, even though there was an obvious gaping hole in the glass frame.

Nanu grabbed onto the door's grimy knocker and violently tapped it against the door, so loud that the knocking could have been heard throughout the echoing halls of the mansion. "Open this door!" Nanu thundered with rage, "Open this door you little brats! Don't pretend like you can't hear me! I know you're in there you…"

Eventually the door opened, just like he had desired. The formidable Team Skull leader, Guzma stepped out and his fearsome eyes gazed down on him and locked directly with Nanu's.

Nanu smiled wickedly, "Ah, Guzma!" he said in both fear and admiration for the white-haired twenty-something, "Just the man I wanted to see…"

"Yeah yeah," Guzma scoffed indifferently, straightening his signature golden sunglasses that almost seemed to be permanently attached to his head.

"Guzma, I need a favor of you. You see, your three favorite morons- I-I mean _pupils_ , yes… _pupils…_ had dumped another bucket of water, and due to the smell- which is practically melting my nostril hairs- presumably collected from the toilet, and then informed me of an interesting falsehood with which…"

"I said that I didn't wanna stick my nose in Team Rocket's business because I felt like it would be bad for me and for the rest of Team Skull, is that it?" the gang leader huffed somewhat unenthusiastically.

"Yes, that's exactly what-"

Guzma put his pasty palm to his face and let out an exhausted sigh. He seemed to be tired of talking about the subject at hand, even though this was the first time he and Nanu even discussed it with him. After a moment, he continued to speak: "Look, Nanners…"

"I thought I told you never to call me that again…" Nanu said in a monotone voice, disapproving of Guzma's fruit-inspired nickname for him.

"Sorry. I thought I told you _Nanu_ that I don't wanna be a part of this."

"But Guzma!" the older man continued, somewhat shocked that his decision was true and not a fabrication made by some of his good-for-nothing lackeys, "But Guzma, _why?"_

"You wanna know why?" he bellowed, "You wanna know why, huh? Well I'll tell ya why. I don't wanna join 'cause I firmly believe that what ya'll are planin' on doing is wrong. I mean, if ya'll wanna capture a possibly non-existent Pokémon from a galaxy far, far away and then practically abuse it to wack out the space time continuum, then by all means. But my moral compass is tellin' me that I better be a no-show."

"You don't have a moral compass, Guzma…"

"Point taken… But look, if the old Italian guy from Kanto ever wants to steal some puny pipsqueak's Pokémon, then tell him I'm his man. But this whole hot mess of a plan gets a no from me. Okay? Okay. Cool."

He smiled slightly, turned around and made his way back into the house, locking the doors behind him.

"Guzma!" Nanu pleaded, knocking on the door desperately, "Guzma! Guzma! Come on! We _need_ you! Without you we'll-"

"Peace, Nanners." Guzma shouted from inside of the house.

"Stop. CALLING ME THAT!"


	5. Chapter 4

The blazing afternoon sun beat down hotter and harsher than ever as Acerola walked slowly on the lonely roads of Route Eleven, kicking up small pebbles that lay in her path with the tips of the soles of her lavender flip-flops. She sighed as she wiped the sweat from her forehead and resumed looking at the movement of her feet. She was still very much deep in thought and hadn't completely gotten over the fact that Nanu had denied her request to go on the malasada run with her and was still wondering where on earth that he had run off to, and what he had been doing since the series of nightly phone calls started. Even worse, she began to worry that she should have told Jessie and James the truth: there was no trial she had to oversee. She simply hurried out of the malasada shop because the place seemed to remind her of Nanu too much and she needed to take a breather. _Why did I lie to them?_ She thought, _the two people I care more about in the entire world other than my own uncle I lied to. I should have just been honest with them and told them that I didn't want to stay for very long because of the whole situation with-_ She cut herself off briefly: _I shouldn't have lied to Jessie and James…_ Her mind began to wander around in circles, and her breathing became faster and shorter. Her heart began to race just as her mind was racing, lost in a world of nothing but overpowering, anxious thoughts. _Oh no._ She thought in the midst of the storm inside her, _Am I… Having a panic attack? I-I need to sit down…_

She did just that. She walked a few feet further and found a large, smooth rock in the middle of a field where she could temporarily rest and find time to soothe her nerves. The worst thing that could happen to her would be a panic attack, especially since she was so far down Route Eleven and had temporarily forgotten how far she was away from Malie City to possibly walk back. Besides, Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet must've already left the malasada shop by now and entering that place would just make her anxiety worse, especially if she saw that they weren't still there. She just hoped that she would be able to coax herself out of what she was feeling or hope that at least somebody would walk by and ask her if she needed help. She took a few large, deep breaths in, but it was no use. In fact, she was beginning to feel worse than before. "No, no. Please no. Not right now!" She whimpered to herself, holding her head and fighting back tears. But just when she thought that she was on the verge of a complete breakdown, she heard a faint, yet familiar voice in the distance.

"That battle was _intense,_ now wasn't it, Pikachu?" the voice seemed to say.

 _Pika Pika!_ The cheerful electric mouse Pokemon trilled with enthusiasm.

"Luckily you and I have been training hard! Sophocles didn't know what hit him!"

As the voice got closer, Acerola could tell that it was Ash, whom she had met no more than three or four days ago when he had first arrived on Ula'Ula Island to participate in her uncle's Grand Trial, as well as her own. She brought herself to breathe a sigh of relief, though she still hadn't completely gotten over her worries. At least her Good Samaritan was somebody whom she vaguely knew and was relatively comfortable around. As Ash reached her line of sight, Acerola brought herself to stand up and get his attention.

"Hey! Ash!" she yelled as her voice cracked slightly with anxiety.

Luckily, Ash turned around just as soon as his name was called and locked eyes with her. He smiled and called back: "Hey, Acerola! How're you doing?"

She sat back down on the rock when he asked her this. She couldn't physically bring herself to answer. Instead she simply shrugged and waved her hand back and forth, indicating that she was feeling a little on the iffy side. This worried Ash greatly, and he and Pikachu immediately began running over to her to make sure she was doing okay.

"Acerola!" Ash asked in mid-run, "Acerola, what's going on? Are you feeling okay?"

Acerola shrugged again and her breathing became heavier, almost she had been the one to sprint over to the meadow with which she sat: It seemed like all of Ash's exhaustion had been passed over to her, even though she had been sitting when he rushed to her aid.

Ash frowned and kneeled in front of her to get to her eye-level. He locked his eyes to hers (which was something that he rarely ever did to anyone other than Pikachu, unless it was deathly serious that he did), and grabbed her hand in his own. He could practically feel her trembling. If he wasn't already sure about Acerola's current emotional state, he certainly was now. He then proceeded to ask the question again, gently yet forcefully: "Acerola… are you okay?" His tone was both serious and sincere. There was no way Acerola could had possibly told him the trite lie that she was "okay."

She croaked and shook her head 'no', looking away from boy's warm brown eyes frantically, letting her own well up with tears before springing forward and throwing herself into his arms, resting her head on his sweat-stained t-shirt. As soon as she did this she let out a small yelp, and let the tears hit the earth beneath her.

Ash was slightly taken aback by this, as was Pikachu for that matter. The Pokémon-Trainer duo looked at each other for a second in shock, as well as grief. There was something in Pikachu's expression that told Ash that Acerola greatly needed him right now and that the best thing to do would be to hug her back. He nodded for a second and did just that, as Pikachu jumped into the girl's lap and rested his warm, furry body against the girl's belly. None of them said a word, yet there was something about Ash's presence and the warmth of Pikachu sitting peacefully in her lap and occasionally whispering soothing _Pikas_ that made all her current worries subside. After nearly ten minutes of silent hugging, her grip on Ash's shirt loosened slightly, and her breathing began to steady. Surprisingly, she happened to be the one who had broken the silence.

"Thank you… for being here…" she whispered, still slightly anxious, but calmer than she was a few minutes before, "I honestly don't know what I would have done had you not shown up."

"How are you feeling now?" Ash asked, still worried.

The purple-haired tween took a deep breath in and let a small smile form on her lips: "Better. Still a little wonky, but much better nonetheless."

Ash breathed a sigh of relief and returned her smile: "That's great to hear. Glad you're doing much better. B-by the way, if you don't mind me asking… what exactly happened that had caused you to- "

She frowned. "I-it's complicated. Just some issues with my family that's all…"

"Is there anything in particular that you want to talk about? Maybe getting everything off your chest would help some of the "wonky" become well… "not wonky" anymore."

Acerola sighed: "My uncle's going on a business trip in another couple of days and I've been rather worried about him, that's all."

"Hey…" Ash crooned, putting his hand on her shoulder and smiling compassionately, "Thanks for telling me. I know it must be weird telling somebody you've only known for three days something like that but, honestly, I'm just glad you were willing to tell that to me. How are you feeling now?"

" _A lot_ less wonky." She replied with a smile.

"Good." Ash half-laughed, "There's no use worrying about stuff you can't control, right?"

"Absolutely." She finally got up off the rock which she was sitting on, took a stretch and shook the boy's hand, "Thanks for everything, Ash. I really owe ya one."

"It's no problem, Acerola. It's the very least I could do. You looked like you needed help, so I decided to offer you some as best I could."

"Well, you succeeded. Thank you again." She then proceeded to wrap the boy up in a briefer embrace and bid the boy a good evening: "I'll see ya at the Thrifty Mega Mart abandoned site in another couple of days yeah?"

"Yeah! I just passed Sophocles' trial and then it's off to yours!"

"Excellent. I'll see you then!"

But just before she could begin her long trek back to Po Town, Ash put his hand on her shoulder to stop her from walking away.

"Hey! Acerola!" he exclaimed, his hand still resting atop of her shoulders, "Is there someplace you have to be right now?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Well, uh, I'm actually on my way to meet up with my friends and the Professors for dinner in Malie City. Would you like to come?"

"Are you serious?"

"Absolutely!" the raven-haired boy insisted, "It would be great if you could come! I'm sure they'd be more than willing to let you come have dinner with us!

 _Pika Pika!_

Acerola thought this over for a brief second: Nanu might be home by now, and if she decided to go through with attending dinner with Ash and his classmates he might be worried sick about her and wondering where she had gone to so late in the evening. However, if she went back to Po Town and had discovered that the police station was empty, it could potentially lead to her having another panic attack. Ash showing up just as she had started feeling overwhelmed was a pure stroke of good luck, and she had absolutely no idea where Jessie and James had run off to after she had left them at the bakery and was just as uncertain of when they'd come back, she decided that going all the way home only to risk having to get over a panic attack all by herself was a chance she was better off not taking. So, with a wide smile spreading across her face, she agreed to going with her new friend to dinner.

"Awesome!" Ash beamed, "I'll let the group know that you're coming! Meet us at the restaurant next to the salon in a half an hour, okay?"

"Okay!" Acerola giggled, "I'm not entirely sure about what I'm gonna do for the next half an hour until then but I'll make sure to meet you over there soon! I promise!"

Ash laughed, "Cool! I'll see you later!"  
"Yeah! See ya later!"

The half hour had already passed and Ash was still standing outside of their restaurant in Malie City, waiting for Acerola's arrival while the rest of the group was seated by the hostess and had to most likely delay ordering due to his temporary absence, unaware if she'd even show up. He looked at his Pokémon partner, who currently had his stubby yellow paws rubbing his empty tummy, indicating that he was running on empty and needed to fill up quickly. _Pikaaaa…_ he groaned.

"I know, Pikachu, I'm pretty hungry too," Ash sighed, putting his hands behind his head and staring off into the technicolored late-evening sky above them, "But I did promise Acerola I'd wait for her. And a promise is a promise, buddy." His mind then trailed off for a second as he stared off into space, _I just hope she's doing okay. I don't want her to…"_

"HEY, ASH!"

He turned around and came face to face with an ecstatic Acerola, running at top speed to meet him at the spot he stood and eventually wrapped him into another unexpected squeeze.

"Hey! You came!" Ash grunted as Acerola continued to tighten her Bewear hug on him.

"Well duh, silly!" she tittered giddily, "I promised I would, didn't I?"

"Yeah. You did." Ash replied, smiling, letting go of her for a second, "Uh… Acerola… I hate to break it to you but uh… You're kinda… suffocating me…"

Acerola immediately let Ash go and covered her mouth with her hand in embarrassment, "Oh no. I'm so sorry about that Ash, I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay." Ash gasped, "You were just excited to see me, that's all."

 _Piiikachu._

"So, uh, shall we now?"

"Yes please! I'm _starving!"_

Hand-in-hand, the twosome walks happily into the restaurant and maneuver around other tables in the dining area and approach the booth where the group of five younger trainers and professors Kukui and Burnet had been sitting for at the very least a good fifteen minutes waiting for him to return.

"Wait just a second, I'm gonna announce your arrival!" Ash said, motioning for Acerola to stand back for a second.

"Uh, okay."

Ash proceeded to walk up to his friends: "Hey everybody!" Ash calls out sheepishly, "Sorry that took so long, I wasn't expecting our special guest to take quite so long to arrive."

"Special guest?" Professor Kukui asked, raising his eyebrow slightly, "You never told us of any sort of special gust was coming to dinner."

Ash immediately went pale. "Aw man!" he shouted, "I totally forgot to mention that we had another person joining us at the last minute for dinner!"

"Typical Ash!" Mallow laughed, smiling slightly and looking up temporarily from the menu in her hands, everyone else following her with laughter.

"Uh! I'm just glad you finally showed up!" Sophocles groaned, "I couldn't take waiting any longer! I'm _starving!"_

"So, this 'special guest'…" Kiawe asked, intrigued, "Who are they?"

"Yeah! Lillie cheered, "Let's meet them!'

This was Acerola's cue. She walked up to the table quietly and stood directly next to Ash.

"Everyone, I'd like for you to meet Ula'Ula trial captain Acerola!" Ash said, presenting her to his group of friends.

A series of ecstatic "hellos" and "heys" were exchanged as Acerola smiled and took her seat next to Professor Burnet on the opposite side of the curved table.

The entire night was a series of jokes, tall tales, miniature lessons on Pokémon and the performance of a proper Z move, amongst other things, and Acerola seemed to have no problem fitting in with Ash's friends. Their chemistry was almost instant, and pretty soon, they were all bouncing ideas off of one another and allowing the newest addition to their circle to participate fully in the conversation as the ate, drank, and were merry. _It was funny how the simple comradery of joking and goofing off with friends of a friend could make you forget all of your worries…_ Acerola thought as she drained her glass of the last small drops of soda that lay at the bottom amongst the ice, _these guys are amazing! I really hope I get to hang out with them more in the future._

And just like that, Acerola's wish came true, as her fairy godmother (or father, rather) Professor Kukui had seemed to know what she was thinking, faced and asked her a question: "Hey, Acerola, how would you like to enroll in courses at the Pokémon School sometime? I mean, Melemele Island is a bit of a hike from here so maybe attending class at the physical building might not be the best idea, but…"

"Hey! She could always hitch a ride with me!" Kiawe offered, "I live on Akala and I make a trip to Ula'Ula daily to deliver Moomoo Milk every morning before school! I'll pick you up at your place and we could fly to school together on my Charizard!"

Acerola giggled at Kiawe's enthusiasm, "Thank you both, that's very kind of you both to offer, however I'd have to bring it up with my uncle first! And unfortunately, he's gonna be gone on business for a few weeks and by the time he gets back, you guys might be on to the next island!"

"She's right, honey." Burnet said, looking at her husband, "She'd have to get her uncle's say first."

"Well... hey! You could always join us for a few classes here on Ula'Ula Island!" Ash suggested, "And when your uncle gets back, you could ask him if you could enroll in the Pokémon School! Please say yes, Acerola!"

"Yeah! PLEEEEEEEASE!" Mallow begged.

"I said I'd take you over every day on Charizard! Hey, I could even give you your own ride pager if you want!" Kiawe pleaded.

 _Pika Pika!_

Lana, Sophocles, and Lillie all squeaked "PLEEEEEEASE" together as well, and even overly-enthusiastic Kukui and Burnet were at the edge of their seat awaiting the trial captain's decision.

Acerola let out an ecstatic laugh: "Okay! I'll do it!"

The entire roomed seemed to fill with their cheers.

"That's awesome, Acerola! So glad you decided to come with us!" Ash cheered.

"Well, it sounded like fun, so hey, I thought 'why not'!" She let out another laugh, so happy that her new friends were so enthusiastic that she was going to be coming along with them on their adventures across Ula'Ula.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Professor Burnet added, "Acerola, sweetie, since your uncle is supposed to be going in another couple of days, would you like to stay with Ash, Kukui and I? Once again, you'd have to get his permission and well, you'd also be coming with us to Melemele but…"  
"THAT SOUNDS AMAZING!" Acerola squealed, "I'd love to! And hey! Nanu's not leaving until late tomorrow morning, so I can always ask him then and if he says yes then I'll bring my stuff! Hey! And while we're at it, I could ask him if I could be enrolled in the Pokémon School!"

"Great!" Burnet interjected, "We'll meet you by the Ula'Ula ferry terminal then and take you over, alright?"

"Sounds perfect!"

"YEAH! Acerola's gonna be staying with us for a little while! All right!"

 _Pika Pika!_

Acerola smiled and blushed. She found it so flattering how Ash was so excited that she would be staying with them for the next few weeks until Nanu's return. _This could only mean the start of a beautiful friendship from here…_ she thought, letting her eyes wander dreamily around the room. That is, until she caught a glimpse of the clock on the wall. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted that it was nearly nine o'clock! She needed to be home and in bed by ten and Po Town was a bit of a walk from where they were eating! She let out a panicky squeal and stood up on top of her chair, forgetting that they were in a public place for a second.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Acerola screamed, "I'M GONNA BE LATE! UNCLE NANU EXPECTS ME IN BED BY TEN AND PO TOWN'S AT LEAST FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AWAY FROM HERE! AAAAAH!" She hoped off the seat and immediately shook the professors' and Ash's hands before making a beeline to the front door, "THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING GUYS! HOPE TO SEE YOU TOMORROW!"

"Bye Acerola…" Professor Kukui said, slightly shocked at how fast such a little girl could run in less than five seconds simply because she was fearing returning home late, "See you tomorrow, kiddo!"

She took a final, rushed bow that looked more like a nod of the head before racing off into the night.

By the time Acerola arrived home, it had just turned ten o'clock and she was indescribably tired from making the trip from Malie City to the outskirts of Po Town completely on foot. Seeing the Police Station in the distance was a soothing sight to her- pretty soon she would be relaxing in her room in the back of the station in her soft bed and under her cozy comforter, snuggling with mounds of pillows and cuddly Pokémon dolls. Just the thought of rest and relaxation made her salivate for it, and she mustered up running once more to the front door of the station.

"Yeah! I made it!" she said, panting, reaching her shaky, pale hand into her dress pocket to look for her keys. As she dug around in the dark looking for them, a gust of wind hit the door and it blew open with a gentle, yet eerie creaking noise.

 _Huh? That's weird._ Acerola thought, _Uncle Nanu never leaves the door unlocked…_

She stepped inside with caution and fumbled around the wall looking for the light switch, calling out Nanu's name.

"Uncle Nanu…" Acerola whisper-yelled, "Uncle Nanu! It's me! Acerola! Is anybody home?"

Then, as she put her hand on the light switch, readying to turn it on, a large _CRASH_ was heard, followed by the tinkling noise of shattering glass. The Station's lights turned on automatically and the security alarm began shrieking. Terrified of what was going on, Acerola made her way out of the building and began to run in the opposite direction, towards Route Fifteen shouting for help. Soon, she heard heavier footsteps following her and a bellowing voice shouting her name. She didn't dare turn around, and kept on running until she, without thinking, ran into an open field. But the figure kept following her and calling out her name, and eventually, as soon as she stopped to wonder which direction she should go, was confronted by it.

"LET ME GO!" the young girl shrieked and squealed, kicking her legs into the air, "LET ME GO! HELP! POLICE!"

"ACEROLA!" the figure growled, "ACEROLA! IT'S ME!"

She turned around and noticed that the person who had been chasing her for the past half a mile had been none other than her very own uncle.

"Oh Uncle Nanu!" Acerola cried, wrapping her arms around her uncle's waist and burying her face into his chest, allowing her tears to stain his shirt.

"Hey kiddo…" Nanu crooned, stroking her hair, "It's me, I promise. It's okay." His tone immediately changed as soon as Acerola's crying seemed to stop, "WHERE WERE YOU?! DID ANYTHING HAPPEN?! ARE YOU HURT?!"

"No, Uncle Nanu, I'm fine…" She said innocently, sniffling slightly.

Nanu sighed, "Uh… Thank Arceus… Someone broke into the station, and I feared that you had gotten hurt or something." He seemed to rush his words, "But thankfully, you weren't. Now, if you excuse me, I have a couple of crooks to catch."

Acerola stood there, dumbfounded that her uncle was leaving her _again,_ "B-but Uncle Nanu!"

"Sorry hon, duty calls" was all he could say before running off into the darkness of the moonlit woods, unaware of what danger lurked within them.


	6. Chapter 5

With only the minimal light of the Alolan moon, Nanu pushed his way around the midnight underbrush. He had practically been running nonstop through tangled and twisted branches and tall grass and spinerak webs for the past hour now, and there was still absolutely no sign of the culprits of the police station break in. The only evidence he had that gave him some sliver of hope that the criminals were still out there was the occasional misstep of a human foot on dead leaves coming from miles ahead of him. _I know they're out here somewhere._ Nanu growled, his body scratched by innumerable branches and thorns, and his breathing heavy from sprinting after seemingly nonexistent persons, _they couldn't have possibly gone far- this forest is only so big._

After a few seconds, he came to a clearing with a dirt path. Once he reached the road, he stopped to catch his breath and took a look around him. From what he could tell, he was surrounded by miles of forest on all sides, and the only noises he heard were the trills of various nocturnal bug-type Pokémon and the occasional cooing of a Rowlet or Noctowl in one of the nearby trees. It was useless- he was alone.

"Great." He whispered, angry at himself, "Just perfect. This forest must've been much bigger than I thought. If those crooks even ran off into this forest, they must've escaped on a different path that took them Arceus knows where. I've been chasing after the sound of my own feet for hours now. Son of a-"

But before he could finish his rant, he heard bushes rustling violently and various twigs snapping on the ground beneath him. _Maybe I'm not alone in these woods after all…_ He readied his Pokeball, containing his sleeping Alolan Persian and unlocked his handcuffs. He stepped closer to the rustling mess of undergrowth and…

 _I've caught you now you…._

 _Ratattaaaaaa!_

Nanu stepped back as the frightened rodent Pokémon scurried over his feet and leaped into another nearby bush. He slapped his face with the palm of his hand in frustration, "I knew I smelled a rat somewhere nearby, but this is ridiculous…"

He took a look at the wrist watch on his arm. It was nearly two in the morning. He grumbled something inaudible under his breath and convinced himself that there was nothing he could do except admit defeat and return to the station to look after a possibly frightened Acerola. But as he turned around and began his long trek back to the Po Town outskirts, he heard more bushed rustling and twigs snapping. He stood back temporarily and observed the scene before he decided if action desperately needed to be taken. When the rustling stopped, he saw three figures- two of which were human and one appearing to be that of a bipedal Pokémon, moving around in the dark cautiously and bickering amongst themselves in low whispers. It appeared that Nanu found his suspects.

"STOP! THEIVES!" he shrieked, pointing at the figures, prompting them two to run to the left, and the other to run to the right into the surrounding wooded areas.

 _I've got some runners now, do I?_ Nanu pondered before smiling evilly and adding: _Just how I like em'. Finally, some REAL action!_ "Persian! I choose you! Catch those crooks!" He threw a Pokeball into the air and the lion-like beast within awoke from its slumber, ready and willing to hunt. Without being commanded a second time, Nanu's Persian sprinted on the dirt road with her trainer following close behind, observing both sides of the clearing for any sign of the criminals. Once she got a glimpse of something shiny bouncing up and down on the left side of the woods, she leaped into action and began to follow after it.

"Atta girl, Persian!" Nanu cheered, "Catch me some bad guys!"

Persian let out a roar as she looked back at her trainer before completely disappearing into the night, and leaving Nanu alone on the dirt road until he reached the forest's edge, where he stopped and waited for his beloved feline Pokémon to return to him.

Nearly twenty minutes had passed and Nanu had still not seen any sign of Persian or the burglars with which she had been commanded to chase after, and Nanu was beginning to get worried. _What's taking that crazy cat so long?_ He thought, _she's usually done by now._ Then, without warning, a gruesomely familiar sound echoed throughout the forest, spooking some of the wild Pokémon that resided within it. Nanu recognized it all too well- it was Persian. With his heart nearly skipping a beat, Nanu rushed into the woods once more, desperately looking for and calling out Persian's name to make sure she was okay. After a time of sprinting that felt like somewhere between the blink of an eye and a week, Persian was finally found lying on the forest floor, covered in scratches and puncture wounds and emitting purple bubbles from her nose. She had been severely poisoned.

He collapsed to his knees to the damp ground and cradled the injured Pokémon in his arms. "Persian! Persian my darling! Who _did_ this to you?"

"Yes, who _DID_ attack your poor, sweet little Persian?" a condescending female voice sneered from the darkness.

"Yes, but that's what you get. We were only trying to help you, Nanu, and this is the thanks you give us?" Another voice added, clearly disgusted.

"Yeah, not cool man!" A final voice, thick with a Brooklyn accent hissed.

"Who are you, how do you know my name, and what have you done to Persian?!" Nanu roared.

"What a pity," the female voice scoffed, "I thought you would have recognized us by now…"

"What do you mean?" the police officer snarled, "I want answers and I want them now, GOT IT?!"

"Did somebody ask something? We're here to find out!"

"Noble answers are what we're all about!"

"The beauty so radiant, the flowers and moon hide in shame! A single flower of evil in this fleeting world…"

The figure emerged from the darkness and revealed a female figure clad in thigh-high black boots with matching gloves and a white Team Rocket uniform. Nanu could hardly believe his eyes. "Jessie?" he whispered, dumbfoundedly.

"The one and only." Jessie replied, narrowing her eyes and bearing an evil grin.

"And I suppose James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet are here too then, are they not?"

"Oh, COME ON!" James shouted, exasperated that Nanu had immediately recognized them before they could finish their entire motto as he walked into the moonlight with his Pokémon partners by his side, "At LEAST could you have let us finish our motto first before you rudely interrupted it?"

"Yeah! We take great pride in dat catch phrase ya know! It basically represents everything we stand for as agents of Team Rocket!" The feline Pokémon nagged with the same fiery passion as his second human counterpart.

 _WOOOOOOOBBUFFET!_

"So, I didn't hear incorrectly then…" Nanu whispered, remembering what the Boss had told him on one of their previous phone calls.

"What?"

"He… Told me that you four were currently working for him in his Alolan branch and to essentially… Wow… So he wasn't wrong…" Nanu grinned, choking up out of sheer excitement and wonder.

"What on earth are you…"

"Guys, I' afraid I haven't been completely honest with you. I may be a police officer, but I'm also… a member of Team Rocket as well."

"Then… We were right all along" Jessie and James mumbled simultaneously, in the same awe as Nanu himself was in a few seconds before.

"Huh?"

"Well, uh… I-It's a long story…" James sighed, "Come back with us to our hideout and we'll explain everything. And make sure you bring Persian too- I have some antidote squirreled away that you could use."

Nanu glanced at his watch. It was nearly four am now and by seven he had to be up, packed, and completely dressed to leave Alola for Team Rocket Headquarters in Kanto. He then thought of poor Acerola. She probably hadn't slept a wink since he ran off, or at least spent a good portion of the night worrying about him. However, he needed to heal Persian and the nearest Pokémon Center was miles from where he was currently, and if Jessie and James were in his side, he could very easily use them as his backup on his current mission, and he admitted, he needed all the help he could possibly get. So, in reality, what did he really have to lose? He took a deep breath in, returned Persian to her Pokeball, and smiled at the twosome.

"Let's go".

"Splendid! We'll discuss details once we arrive." James replied, clapping his hands together enthusiastically an grinning before allowing Jessie to lead the pack back to Bewear's den.

"Why… Did we… Have to… Go back to… Melemele Island?!" Nanu replied, panting from exhaustion as he leaned up against the walls of the Rocket agents' Bewear den-gone secret base.

"Well, James DID say he'd take you to our secret hideout…" Jessie added, putting up her pointer finger

"…Which… Just so happens to be on Melemele Island so…" James replied, shrugging.

"I thought… Your hideout… would've been someplace… nearby… the way you were talking about it!"

"Well… No… But we're here… That's all that matters right?" James squeaked.

"And are you doing okay, gramps?" Jessie chortled, "You sound like you ran a marathon to get here, sheesh!"

"I DID…" Nanu wheezed in agitation, "I ran from ferry to ferry trying to catch up with you, and then I missed your balloon and had to chase after it before you two numbskulls found out I was missing!"

Jessie and James looked at each other and turned red as beets.

"Yeah…."

"Yeah."  
"That'll... That'll do it to you…"

"Yep."

"He has a point…"

"NOW! Was there ANY other point you guys wanted to make to me while we were here besides to give my dying cat some medicine?"

"Oh! Right!" James exclaimed as he ran into the back of the hideout to grab an antidote for Nanu to use, "Here ya are- it's fairly old, but it should do the trick."

"Thank you." He then proceeded to use the antidote on his injured Pokémon. She recovered completely within seconds. "There we go girl," he whispered, petting her on the top of her forehead and stroking the blue gem that lay at its center, "All healed. Now, return. You need a good rest after all that."

"I bet you're wondering…" Jessie added, leaning against the wall nearest to Nanu, "How Persian got into this mess."

"Yes, quite frankly, I am" Nanu replied, standing up again and walking closer over to the foursome.

"Well, you see…" Meowth shrugged, "We were jus' on our way home from some business and uh, we gots chased by somebody-"

"Presumably you" James added.

"…Yes, presumably you" the talking feline Pokémon continued, "And eh, well, we weren't ta fond of dat were we?"

"Yes, that's correct. And uh, when you sent your Persian out to chase us…"

"Knucklehead over here kinda sent out his Mareanie ta attack it and all dat…"

"…Which is why… you found her with puncture wounds all over her body." James squeaked, feeling guilty that he had attacked the Pokémon that meant the most to Nanu, "But then we took a better look at this Persian and found out that it happened to look surprisingly a lot like yours…"

"All Alolan Persians look the same, James…" Nanu grumbled.

"R-Right, but somehow I had gotten a bad feeling that it might have been yours. I have this kind of weird ESP thing that can kinda predict that we're about to get our behinds kicked."

"Yeah. He does." Jessie added in agreement, "Trust me, I've developed it too."

"So do I for dat matter. Getting' yer behind kicked practically every known episode of dis cartoon really starts ta make ya wonder whether or not yer trapped in dis kind'a vicious…"

Nanu seemed unimpressed. James anxiously continued: "A-anyway, we just figured that since it was an Alolan Persian that had been sent after us, we kinda figured it was you and then confronted you by saying your name before we began our motto which SOMEONE rudely interrupted…"

"Well that explains why I found Persian in the condition she was in and why you three knew my name before… Wait a second… If you guys knew it was me, then why did you taunt me before you said that stupid little mantra of yours?"

Jessie nervously laughed and put her palm to her forehead in embarrassment: "Well, uh, you see… We like to sound intimidating. We _are_ members of the Illustrious Team Rocket, after all, and Team Rocket is no name to joke around about!"

Nanu fell silent for a second and put two and two together. With all this evidence Acerola's nincompoop friends had provided for him, it was making it seem like… He gasped.

"…So, it was you who had broken into the police station…" He mumbled, his eyes locked on them as if he were a Braviary observing its unsuspecting prey.

The Rocket foursome gulped, looking back into Nanu's sinister eyes. All they could do was silently nod.

In a split second, his expression changed: "You don't have to act so scared of me geez! It's not like I'm going to arrest you or anything!" Nanu laughed jovially, "I'm on _your_ side, remember?"

Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet looked at each other before letting out a clearly nervous laugh

"Oh yeah…" Jessie snickered, her forehead covered in anxious beads of sweat, "H-how could we have possibly forgotten?"

 _Wobbuffet…_

"Alright" Nanu laughed, "Now, that just about covers everything up, now doesn't it? But, I still do have two questions left for you…"

"L-let us have em!'"

"Firstly, why did you choose to break into the Po Town Police Station? I am well aware of _how_ you both got in and escaped- simply breaking in through the front door is a _very_ rookie thing to do, and while escaping through an unopened glass window trying to make your getaway was daring on your part, however, very, very inconvenient on mine."

Jessie and James froze. Their pupils dilated and their lips twisted into panicky smiles. Sweat began to pour from their foreheads to the point where James actually had to tug at the collar of his uniform shirt to cool down. If they weren't already nervous from the death glare Nanu had given them a few minutes beforehand, they certainly were now and were terrified and unsure of what to say at this point. They had promised Acerola that they would get to the bottom of the mystery of her uncle's nightly phone calls from strange characters and bizarre behavior, but at the same time, now that their original theory regarding Nanu being affiliated with Team Rocket had been confirmed, they could very easily assist him in this "secret project" that Giovanni-THEIR boss- had been discussing with him, and potentially getting back on his good side (if they were ever on his good side anyway). Both telling Nanu the truth or making up some fabricated alibi on the spot had the same implications- the endangerment of Acerola and the endangerment of themselves- so regardless of which option they chose, they were bound to be walking on thin ice. But before any one of them had a chance to open their mouths, Nanu laughed again and dismissed them.

"Not disclosing your motive of attack are ya?" he snickered, "Decided like a true Rocket agent. My my, Giovanni would be impressed."

The foursome sighed. Saved by the bell.

"But, speaking of old man Giovanni, I have a favor to ask of you…"

"A favor?" James asked, "What kind of 'favor?'"

"Yeah, what does da bawse want from us anyhow?" Meowth inquired, sounding slightly displeased.

"Well, I'm probably violating every single rule under my job description as a Team Rocket executive, but… then again, Team Rocket doesn't play by the rules of the game, now do they?"

"No sir!" Jessie added respectfully and full of pride in her organization.

"Absolutely not sir!" James replied with the same vehement nature as his partner.

"Not at all sir!" Meowth agreed.

 _WOOOOOOOOBUFFET!_

"Now that's what I like to hear!" Nanu cheered, "But, in all seriousness, Giovanni has disclosed the bare-bone details of a top-secret operation he has been planning for nearly a decade now. I can't disclose too much about it, since I'm not even sure I entirely know the specifics of what this project entails myself, but what I can tell you is that it could very easily be the most important project Team Rocket has ever completed. And if it's executed correctly, then the Alola Region- and quite possibly the entire world- will be ours. I remember hearing somewhere that you two wanted to be king and queen of the world… Well… now's your chance to assume your throne."

Jessie and James looked at each other. Although their nerves had subsided, they were still very much unaware of what to do.

"Give us a few seconds to think this over…" Jessie requested, as she lead her teammates outside and formed a huddle. Nanu nodded, allowing the threesome to discuss amongst themselves.

"Look guys," Jessie whispered, "I know that the boss has said some stuff like this plenty of times before and these projects always wind up being a bust, but this time I'm having my doubts that the old man is faking this time."

"But what about Acerola?" James asked, concerned, "We can't just let her down!"

"I know, but just think of it, James We'll be the champions we've always wanted to be! King and Queen of the world, didn't you hear?"

"I can't possibly give up on Acerola!" James replied, raising his voice slightly, "Just this past afternoon, we made a promise to her to find out what's going on with her uncle. We _promised_ her, Jessie! And call me old-fashioned or a snobby little rich boy or whatever you'd like but I believe that a promise is a promise. And it must be kept no matter the circumstances. If we go through with this, we'd break our promise."

"James! Don't you get it? Everything we've ever worked for could be fulfilled in the blink of an eye!" Jessie replied, slightly upset, "All those times our schemes were foiled, all those times we've blasted off, all those times we've been ridiculed by the boss and other members of our own organization- they would all finally be worth it! We'll finally show the boss that we're not a waste of space. We'll finally be somebodies!"

"But Jessie…"

"OPEN YOUR EYES, JAMES!" Jessie pleaded, "Success! Money! Power! Everything we've ever wanted! The whole world would be at our fingertips and you'd want to give that away due to some silly little promise we made to an eleven-year-old girl? As much as I love Acerola, I can't possibly give this up, and you know deep down that you can't either. It's time to face the facts- we're not good guys, James. Now who's with me?" She put her hand down in the center of the circle, waiting for the others to follow after her.

James and Meowth looked at each other for a second and then at their partner's hand. After a few seconds, Meowth reached his paw down into the circle and placed it on top of Jessie's hand. After some hesitation, James finally gave into reality and put his hand into the circle as well.

"You're right, Jessie." He added, stoically, "We're not good guys. And we never will be."

"Glad you finally came to your senses…" Jessie added, shooting her lavender-haired partner a wicked yet seductive grin before looking up and letting out a cheer: "What team?" she asked, pridefully

"ROCKET!" the threesome cheered before heading back inside to deliver their decision in person.

"Nanu, we've made up our minds: we're in."

"Splendid. I'll meet you at the Ula'Ula Ferry Terminal at seven-thirty. We leave for Kanto tomorrow morning."


	7. Chapter 6

"Nanu? Nanu? Naaaanu? Wake up, nanners!" A faint female voice seemed to whisper impatiently as the sleeping police officer only seemed to drift into a deeper sleep.

He yawned slightly. "Hey, could somebody… tell me what time it is?" he asked, still clearly asleep.

"Let's see…" another voice added, slightly louder than that of the female voice, "It's exactly 7 AM!"

"Oh thanks…" Nanu purred as he repositioned himself on his matress and grabbed a hold of his comforter. After a second, he opened a single eye and sprung up out of his bed in a panic: "WHAT?! Ohhh… Giovanni is going to be none too pleased with me when he hears that I'm running late already. And I have to go ahead and meet up with Jessie and James at the ferry terminal and they've probably already left or are wondering where in the heck I've run off to and-" he turned around briefly and noticed Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet standing in full uniform, each with a small duffel bag in their hands, presumably filled with essentials such as toiletries, Pokeballs, and extra uniforms- although it wasn't quite clear what could possibly be in Meowth's or Wobbuffet's bag due to them being Pokemon themselves and walking around naked 99% of the time. He screamed another time and fell out of his bed, hitting his head on the hardwood floor.

"Nanu!" they shrieked, rushing to his aid, asking him over and over again if he was okay or if an ambulance needed to be called.

"What in the name of ARCEUS ARE YOU THREE NUMBSUKLLS DOING IN MY BEDROOM?!" The officer spat, pulling his heavy body up into a reasonable sitting position as best as he could.

"Well, uh, we were uh, sorta in da neighborhood n' all…" Meowth whimpered, slowly shrugging his tiny cream-colored shoulders.  
"And… well… You said that you were going to meet us at the ferry terminal and everything…" James added, his voice quivering with the same level of fear as Meowth's.

"But, da ferry terminal is anotha' coupla thoity miles dat-a-way, so, we dacided ta meetcha at da next best place! Yer own howse! Saprise!"

"Yeah. Surpriiiise…"

 _Woooobbuffet…?_

Nanu scowled, "Whatever. Just… Let's get going before we get chewed out for being later than we already are." He got up off the floor, walked to his closet to pick up his own luggage, and opened the door of his bedroom. Much to his surprise, Acerola was standing there in front of it, still wearing her purple nightgown, clutching her favorite Mimikyu Pokedoll. Her eyes sparked with glints of fear, frustration, and uncertainty.

"A-Acerola, honey! Y-You're up early…" Nanu replied, flashing his niece a brief nervous smile.

"Good morning, Uncle Nanu." Acerola added, stoically, "I have a lot of questions to ask you, particularly about your whereabouts last night, however, I am afraid they are going to have to wait because I know you were busy with your trip. However, I do have a very important question to ask you before you rush off to wherever it is you need to go…"

"Wow, I didn't know an eleven-year-old could possibly use the word 'whereabouts' properly in a sentence! Nice work, Nanu! She's getting a really good education, if I do say so myself!" James marveled.

"JAMES!" Jessie and Meowth shrieked knocking the lavender-haired man upside his head, "Great! Now you just blew our cover! Thanks a lot, walking dictionary!"

 _WOOOOOBBUFET!_

"Wait… Hold on a second… What on earth are Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet doing in your bedroom? And why are they wearing those ridiculous-looking costumes?"

Jessie and James froze. _Oh no…_ The two thought simultaneously. They seemed to communicate using the "ESP" they claimed to have back at their base on Melemele:

 _She's never seen us in our uniforms before…_

 _In fact, Jessie, last time I checked, we haven't even told Acerola we're a part of Team Rocket at all!_

 _You're right, James! We COMPLETELY neglected to tell her that_

 _we're secretly agents of the most powerful crime syndicate in the entire world!_

Meowth seemed to tune into this mental conversation as well:

 _How are we evah gonna explain dis to her? We can't just tell her da truth now! Aftah all we've been through! Aftah she trusted us and we became her friends!_

 _Meowth's right, James. We can't tell her the truth- she'll be crushed! We're already putting our friendship with her in jeapordy by choosing to follow Nanu on this mission!_

 _Hold on guys, I have an idea…_

"Well…" Jessie gulped, "Uh, Acerola… Yesterday evening, we actually found out what was going on with your uncle…"

"Really?!" Acerola asked, her eyes seeming to smile.

"We did?" James asked, innocently.

"Oh course we did!" his hot-headed companion barked, looking back at him and winking violently.

"Oooh…" he said, "We did! Yep!"

Nanu froze. _Great! I'm going to be incriminated by members of my own organization!_

"And uh, we REALLY didn't want to break it to you now with him present because we're pretty much blowing not only his, but our own covers as well, but, I'm afraid, given the circumstance, it's what we have to do…" James shrugged.

"Acerola, yer lookin' at the illustrious Team Rocket!" Meowth added, pointing off in the distance and making a determined stance, prompting his human counterparts to follow his lead.

"World-famous team of super heroes!" Jessie squealed.

Acerola's eyes began to sparkle excitedly, "Wow…" she whispered, "You guys are REALLY super heroes?! Like, ACTUAL super heroes who go off and fight bad guys and stuff?"

"Of course, we're really super heroes!" Jessie snapped, folding her arms across her chest and smirking, "What kind of a question is that?"

"We go off and fight baddies left and right!" Meowth replied, smugly.

"We put the bad guys in their place!" Jessie chanted, resuming her original pose, her teammates following, "Cos we're Team Rocket…"

"AND WE'RE IN YOUR FACE!" the three cheered simultaneously.

"We may not fly, but we blast off at the speed of light!"

"Now the villains better surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meeeowth! Dat's right!"

 _WOOOOOOOBBUFFET!_

Acerola put both her palms to her face and began rocking back and forth out of sheer excitement. By the looks of it, Jessie almost began to wonder whether or not it was Christmas morning or something.

"And Nanu's our fancy butler guy who receives all the information regarding all our missions!"

Nanu sighed, wasn't exactly the most believable answer they could have given her, but at least they kept their real identities a secret and didn't wind up turning all of them in.

"And that's why Nanu's been on the phone for all those nights you saw him! He was just receving information on a mission we're going to tackle in Kanto!" Jessie replied.

"We like ta do extensive research on our patential projects y'know. Jus ta make sure we're actually helpin' out folks instead a walkin' right inta a baddie's trap! Ya never know when dere could be a ploy from a supervillain lurkin' in yer inbox!"

"Wow, Jessie, James, Uncle Nanu… I never knew you guys were super heroes! But I mean, it makes sense, given the fact that you guys are always super nice and helpful and caring! And you have the awesome matching uniforms and a TALKING MEOWTH sidekick?! I mean, that's ONLY something a superhero would have, am I right!"

Nanu began to sweat, "Well, o-of course honey!"

"B-but, before you go around telling all your little friends and they start telling all their little friends…" Jessie remarked.

"Who will only go around tellin' dere little friends a friends…" Meowth followed.

"We ask of you that you would keep our secret identities well… a secret!" James requested.

"Of course, I will, James. I promise you. And like you always told me, 'a promise is a promise, and it's never to be broken.'"

He went pale. _Oh yeah… I did say something like that, didn't I…?_

"Well, anyway, I'm SO proud of you two that you had figured out what was up with Uncle Nanu, and I'm sorry you all had to blow your covers right, but still, like I said, I will promise to keep your identities a secret. Wow, my favorite uncle and my best friends in the whole world are superheroes! I can't believe it! You guys are _my_ heroes!" She wrapped the whole lot of them into a large group hug. While they were embracing, Jessie looked at James and activated her ESP again: _Oh boy… I really made a mess of things, didn't I?_

James nodded. _We stepped in it big time, Jess…_

 _We're toast…_ They thought simultaneously as Acerola released them.

"Now that that's settled, I think I had a question I wanted to ask you, Uncle Nanu." Acerola chirped, still filled with joy, "I met up with Ash Ketchum, whom you met a couple days ago when they arrived on Ula'Ula, and his friends yesterday, and I told them that you were going out of town for business and they suggested that I could come and stay with him and Professor Kukui and his wife Professor Burnette on Melemele while you were gone! In addition, they wanted me to enroll temporarily in classes at the Pokémon School! So, Uncle, can I please?" her sparkly, Rockruff-esque eyes were almost too hard not to resist.

"I don't see why not." Nanu stated, "I mean, Ash seems like a good kid, and I've known Kukui and Burnette for most of their lives, so, sure."

Meanwhile, Jessie, James, and Meowth's blood began to boil. They knew the name Ash Ketchum like they knew their own. That was the name of the infamous twerp- the one with the Pikachu that they desperately chased after for years trying to steal. If Acerola stayed with him and even made the slightest allusion to them, they'd not only be toast, but quadruple toast. They had to find a way to stop Nanu from making the mistake of allowing Acerola to stay with him, but had no idea how.

"Oh, Uncle, you're the best!" Acerola squealed, hugging Nanu tightly, "I'll go ahead and get my things! Bu the way, may I walk to the ferry terminal with you? Ash said he'd meet me there."

This was it. That desperate solution they had been thirsting for: if Nanu declined, their butts would be saved! Instead, Nanu did the unthinkable:

"Of course, Acerola. Just get your things and then we'll walk with you."

"Thank you again, Uncle! I'll be back in a flash!" and she ran off, her flip flops making their signature sound as she ran across the wooden floor of the station.

By the looks of it, the Rocket gang's fates were sealed: they were quadruple toast.


	8. Chapter 7

The Ula'Ula Island ferry terminal was as crowded as it ever was. People hopping on and off the teeny water taxis swarmed around the station, making it seem as near impossible as walking through a bowl of maple syrup, except much, much less sticky. After what seems like an eternity of the usual hustle and bustle, Nanu, Acerola, and the Team Rocket threesome managed to get their tickets and walked out to the boarding station, awaiting for their ferries to arrive, all while looking for signs of Ash Ketchum or one of his classmates.

 _Any sign of the Twerp Troupe?_ James asked telepathically to his partners.

 _No, thank Arceus._ Jessie replied, _But still, I'd keep your guard up- you'll never know if they'll show up._

 _Roger..._

"Now, when you get to Kukui's place, remember to give me a call. You have my cell number, right?" Nanu asked anxiously as he wheeled Acerola's suitcase to the boarding station for the ferry bound for Mele Mele Island.

"Mmhum!" Acerola chirped as she picked up her pace to make sure she was not late for her ride, "I've had it in my favorites since the day you bought me the phone."

"Good." The worn-out police officer panted as he handed the bag to the boat's captain, "Don't forget to call me. If you don't, I'm gonna assume something terrible happened to you, and I don't want to go through that period of anxiety."

"And don't take candy from strangers." Jessie replied nervously, tuning into the conversation with only having the slightest clue about what Nanu and Acerola were talking about.

"A-and don't give in to peer pressure. Just because your friends think it's okay to jump off a bridge, or join Team Skull, or eat random berries, or launch a Pokémon into outer space or something doesn't mean you should either." James added.

"And if ya get lost, always rememba ta..."

"Guys, please!" Acerola laughed, "Don't be so worried! Ash and his friends are a great group of kids; I highly doubt that any one of them are juvenile delinquents. Besides, it's not like I'm going to a place I don't know. I've been to Melemele Island tons of times! I know my way around."

Jessie grunted slightly and mumbled a brief inaudible complaining about someone being a "twerp" before being wrapped into Acerola's arms for another group hug.

"I love you guys." Acerola purred, "Have fun on your 'business trip', if you know what I mean". She winked with that last comment, making Jessie and James flinch slightly. She then released the group and boarded the ferry, turning back to wave at them before she disappeared into the sitting area of the boat.

"Bye, sweetheart!" Nanu called out, waving enthusiastically to his niece. As soon as the boat left the dock, Nanu turned to Jessie and James with an enraged expression, "WHAT WERE YOU THREE KNUCKLEHEADS THINKING?!" he raved, pinching the ears of the two humans and dragging Meowth along by his tail with his ring and pinky fingers.

"Hey! OUCH!" Jessie hissed, "Watch the hair! I pay good money to have it styled like this every month, you know!"

"S-she's not wrong, Nanu!" James replied, "You should see the bill that comes in the mail about a week after; it's not cheap to get your hair to defy the laws of gravity these days!"

The enraged Nanu stopped at the steps of the ferry, letting go of the agents' ears, but still continuing his rage even as he handed the bags to the captain, "SUPERHEROES?! REALLY?! What in the absolute HECK made you think that Acerola was going to believe that?!"

"Well, it did kinda woik in episode fworty-fwor of da Indigo League arc..." Meowth mumbled, rubbing his tail to soothe the pain, "We've kinda used it as our go-to excuse for wearin' ridiculous-lookin' costumes..."

"Put a sock in it, Meowth!" The feline's human companions fumed.

"For your information, Meowth, we worked weeks on designing these outfits!" Jessie barked, "I absolutely REFUSED to wear the same uniform as that good-for-nothing leech Cassidy!"

"Yeah! I personally feel like our personal rendition of the uniform is much classier!" James scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I feel like we're avoiding the obvious problem here." Nanu stated, "YOU THREE IDIOTS SOMEHOW CONVINCED MY ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD NEICE THAT WE WERE SUPERHEROES!"

"We know." James replied a little less heated than before, "And much to your, and quite frankly, our surprise, it worked!"

"I mean, did you really think she believed us?" Jessie grumbled, "She's eleven. She knows there's no such thing as superheroes."

"Jess, we tricked a sixteen-year-old into baleivin' we got supah powers bafore. I'm PRETTY sure she baleived us." Meowth mumbled.

"You're right, good point..."

"Once again, we're BEATING AROUND THE BUSH! YOU THREE ARE WALKING ON _VERY_ THIN ICE RIGHT NOW AND IF YOU KEEP LYING TO MY OITTLE GIRL LIKE THAT SHE'S GONNA..."

"Rilax, granpa" Meowth shushed, "She nevah has ta find out we ain't supahheroes."

"Besides, she promised to keep our 'super-secret identities' a secret, so it's not like she's gonna scream all over town that Jessie, James, Meowth, and Nanu are superheroes straight out of a Marvel comic." Jessie shrugged.

"I guess you're right..." Nanu mumbled, "But at the same token, it feels wrong that we lied to her."

James nodded sympathetically, "I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it..."

"Idn't dat just cos we're on a boat and youse got a weak stomach so ya get seasick easy?" Meowth griped.

"James, as much as I want to agree with you, we did the best we could at that given moment. And besides, remember what I said back at Bewear's Den?" Jessie asked, raising her eyebrow a bit.

"You're right, Jessie. We aren't good guys." James sighed

"...And we never will be." Jessie finished, "Good."

"Dontcha mean 'bad'?" Meowth joked.

"No, I meant good,"

"But didntcha say we weren't good gois?"

"Yes, but I was just saying that James response was good."

"But if we ain't good gois, den we don't have da capacity for 'good'. Derefore, James' comment was bad."

"Meowth! I just meant that James' comment was the correct thing to say, like if-"

"I'm with Meowth on this one, Jess. If we're bad guys then we don't have the capacity for good, so how could my last comment possibly be..."

"GRRR! FINE! IT WAS BAD, JAMES, YOUR COMMENT WAS THE WORST THING I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE. THERE, ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?"

"Jessie! How could you say something so hurtful!" James whimpered, tears forming in his eyes, "I know I'm a total loser, but you didn't have to reaffirm that!"

"WHY YOU LITTLE-"

As the threesome began to bicker with one another, Nanu put his hands to his face and let out a deep sigh: _How did I possible get stuck with there three morons?_ He thought before whispering, "This is going to be a VERY long mission..." He then proceeded to board their boat, dragging the griping threesome with him in tow.

Acerola stepped gingerly into the seating area on the ferry, her legs still not completely stable on the floor beneath her. Although she had traveled in a boat a few times before, this was the first time when she had boarded one completely by herself and with no one to hold her hand or keep her steady, so, in reality, she didn't quite have her sea legs just yet. As she began to make her way around the room, looking for any sign of Ash, his classmates, or one of the professors, the boat began to violently bob up, causing her to fall forwards onto the floor, falling face-first into a puddle of sea water that splashed onto the ferry's floor. She then heard a small chuckle and a familiar voice ask if she was okay. She slowly picked up her head and grumbled about her favorite dress being wet. The figure handed her a fresh towel and allowed her to dry herself off with as bet as she could, and as she was doing so, she looked up and discovered that the person who had been so kind to her had been none other than Professor Kukui.

"Professor!" Acerola chirped, "Boy, am I glad to finally see you!"

"I can tell!" He said as he picked her up off the ground, took her by the hand, and lead her to where he had been sitting. "Sorry about getting your dress all wet. We can go ahead and launder it once we get back to the house."

"It's cool." Acerola said, shrugging slightly, "I'll just make sure to pack my sea legs next time so it doesn't have to get dirty again!"

The professor laughed and continued: "So, are you excited to start attending classes at the Pokémon School?"

"Oh yeah!" She responded, "I've always wanted to attend Pokémon School, but with being a Kahuna and an honorary member of Alola's Elite Four, I've never really found the time to attend. Plus, the only Pokémon School in Alola is all the way on Melemele, and since I like on Ula'Ula, it would be a bit of a hike to get to school ever morning!"

"Well hey, how you have the opportunity to!"

"Yeah! Thanks again for allowing for me to stay with you, Ash, and Professor Burnet for a couple of weeks while my uncle and his friends are out of town on business. I really appreciate it."

"It's no problem, Acerola!" Professor Kukui smiled, "Oh, by the way, do you know where your uncle is going?"

Acerola froze , _I promised to keep their identities a secret. I can't have Kukui know!_ "O-oh, I'm actually not quite sure where they're going. I think to Kanto, but don't quote me on it,"

"Oh cool! I love Kanto! I've only ever been once, but it was still a wonderful time. Ash met up with some old friends while they were there, and I got to do some research with Professor Oak on Kanto's Pokémon. Regardless if they're on business or not, I hope they have a great time!"

"So do I." Acerola whispered, letting a small smile part from her lips, "By the way, where is Ash, exactly? Didn't he say that he'd meet with us at the Ula'Ula ferry terminal?"

Kukui laughed, "He's at home with Burnet. He zonked out last night and has been sound asleep since."

Acerola chuckled, "Typical Ash!"

The twosome continued to laugh and talk away, forgetting that the boat had already left the dock, and was about to arrive in Melemele's port in seconds.

"Well, would you look at that." Kukui smiled, turning around and looking through the porthole window behind him, "We're here!"

"Already?!" Acerola asked in shock, "I guess we got so deep into our conversation that we lost track of time!"

"I guess so!" He looked out the window again and chucked, "Looks like _somebody_ finally woke up!"

Acerola trades places with Kukui, looking out the window at the dock that was getting closer and closer into her line of sight. She spotted three figures, enthusiastically waving and calling out to the ship. It didn't take long for her to recognize them as being Ash, Pikachu, and Professor Burnet. "Hi guys!" She waved and called out to them. Even though she was about ninety-five percent certain they couldn't hear her, she continued to smile and wave and call back, just as they did to her. As soon as the ferry finally docked, she immediately ran outside, despite her wobbling around the deck due to the waves, grabbed her suitcase, jumped off the platform, and ran to them with open arms, wrapping them into one of her signature hugs.

"Hi Acerola!" Ash cheered, "so nice to see you again! Sorry I couldn't meet you and Kukui at the ferry terminal this morning. How was your trip?"

 _Pika-Pika!_

"It was fine, thank you!" She giggled, "Kukui told me you were still asleep, and trust me, I totally understand!"

"Uh! Professor! Why did you have to do that?!" Ash whined.

 _Pi-ka-chu..._

"Sorry, Ash," Kukui laughed, "But she asked where you were so I had to be honest with her!"

"Oh well... What's done is done..." Ash grumbled, "But enough just standing around here chatting! Let's get to the Pokémon School! Class is about to start any minute now!"

"Woah, Woah there, hold your Horseas, Ash." Professor Kukui sighed, "Acerola still has to unpack and change!"

"It's alright, love," Burnet giggled, "I could always drop Acerola's suitcase off in the loft. Besides, Principal Oak is dying to meet her; we can't keep the old man waiting too long, am I right? Plus, you, my friend, have a class to teach."

"Well, you're right about that..." Kukui pondered, "But Acerola still has to change into some other clothes- the ones she currently has on got splashed on the boat ride here."

"That's okay, Professor! My dress dried over the course of the boat ride, so there's no need to change anymore. Besides, I didn't get it all that wet anyway."

"Alright then, it's settled. Looks like we're going to the Pokémon School!"

"Yaaaay!" Ash And Acerola simultaneously cheered.

"Last one to the schoolyard is a rotten egg!" Ash shouted,

"Oh, it's ON!"

As the Pokémon School's students filed into homeroom and took their seats, they noticed that Ash's usual was still empty, prompting them to worry.

"I hope Ash is doing okay." Lillie worried, putting her finger up to her lip in an anxious manner.

"So do I..." Lana sighed, "What's taking him so long?"

"I mean, Ash is always her a few minutes later than us, but this is the latest he's ever been." Kiawe replied.

"Yeah, the bell's about to ring any second now!" Sophocles yipped.

"Not only that, but Professor Kukui's not here either!" Mallow noticed, "Something must be going on..."

But as the students began to talk amongst themselves, Ash, Professor Kukui, and Principal Oak filed into the room one by one, each smiling brightly.

"Professor! Ash!" They all said.

"Just in time!" Mallow chuckled.

"Class, please do forgive me for being later than usual this morning, however, Ash, Principal Oak And I had some very important business to attend to." Professor Kukui replied.

"Important business?" Lillie asked.

"Yes, Yes!" Principal Oak smiled, "Kukui and I were in the process of admitting a new student to our class!"

"New student?"

"Yes! So, without further ado..." Kukui smiled, "Everybody give a warm Pokémon School welcome to Ula'Ula Trial Captain And Elite Four member, Acerola!"

Acerola finally entered the room, smiling as happily as she could manage, bowing to her classmates slightly as a sign of respect and gratitude.

"Acerola!" The students cheered.

"I should have known! We were only arranging to have her attend yesterday! How could we all have possibly forgotten?" Mallow shrugged and laughed.

"It's great to see you again!" Kiawe smiled.

"Glad you could attend class with us for the next few weeks!" Lillie responded.

"Thanks guys! I'm just happy my uncle said I could be here!" Acerola replied.

"Now, Acerola, take your seat wherever you like. Because right now, we're about to discuss... legendary Pokémon!"

"Yeah!" The class cheered.

"This is gonna be AWESOME!" Ash clapped.

 _Pi-Pikachu!_

Acerola smiled gleefully. Looks like her first day of school was off to a great start.


	9. Chapter 8

By the time Nanu and Team Rocket arrived in Kanto at their organization's private dock, it was already nightfall. The Lycanroc's moon had risen high in the sky and its bright orangey, Jack-o-lantern-like light casted an eerie pall over the treetops of Viridian Forest. Meowth walked slowly and cautiously to the edge of the boat and stepped gingerly onto the dock. By the time the pads of his paw reached the faded wooden boards, he felt a sharp cold rush through his tiny, furry body as if the dock beneath him was freezing. By arriving in this neck of the woods, especially at night, Meowth felt like something was terribly amiss, yet he couldn't seem to put his paw on it.

"Dere's a bad moon on da rise…" Meowth sung to himself as he looked into the starless, dark purple sky above him.

Jessie and James followed his lead, cautiously taking their time to climb over the low wall of the ferry and joining the feline Pokémon where he stood.

"You could sing that again…" Jessie whispered, her eyes transfixed on the moon's haunting light. There was a sincere tinge of fear in her voice. It was a total change in pace from her usual enraged shout, and James and Meowth thought that it made her sound almost motherly.

"Dere's a bad moon on da rise…"

Jessie scowled a little. "I didn't mean it literally…" Despite her obvious disapproval, that softness hadn't completely left her voice.

James sighed, "I always thought Viridian was creepy at night. This honestly reaffirms my original opinions. Gee, you could've sworn it was Halloween or something by the looks of that sky…"

Wobbuffet popped out of his Pokeball and joined the group. He took one look at the beckoning forest in front of him and immediately grabbed onto one of his trainer's legs for comfort. Instead of getting mad, Jessie reached down and stroked the top of the sentient punching bag's smooth head twice to soothe his nerves. James watched this moment lovingly. It wasn't every day that Jessie was this nice to Wobbuffet, and just knowing that she cared enough about him to make sure his fears were mollified, made him feel a little safer.

Still lagging behind, Nanu thanked the captain of the ferry, climbed off the boat, and walked past the fearful trio into the mouth of the forest. He stopped for a second, turned around, noticing that his teammates were still standing at the edge of the dock like statues.

"Well, are you coming?" he asked apathetically, glaring at them from afar.

"Y-you go right ahead!" James shouted, waving to him like a tearful maiden holding a handkerchief in an old-fashioned movie, "We'll be here, guarding the boat."

"The boat's been gone for almost five minutes now, James." Nanu grumbled.

James turned around. The ex-Team Rocket agent was right- the boat was no longer tied to its post.

"Oh." He simply replied, "My offer still stands."

Nanu scowled, "What, are you scared or something? Arceus, you three are such babies." He turned to leave.

"Nanu, No. Wait just a second." Meowth hissed, disregarding the uneasiness he felt when they had first docked, "It's just dat… well… Da bawse… Da bawse…" He looked up at his human companions, waiting for them to provide him with a valid excuse. Luckily, James came up with one in the nick of time.

"…The boss doesn't… exactly know we're here with you…"

"And? Why does that matter?"

"Well… you see… We aren't exactly… on his nice list, if you get what I'm saying."

"He sent you to Alola. He mentioned to me during his calls that he had a team of three agents stationed there, and by the way he mentioned it, it sounds like you three were the only three he sent there."

"Y-yes, but he really only does it so he can get ri-" Jessie covered James's mouth with both her hands to silence him.

"You're right, James. Grumpy old man does have a point, doesn't he? Let's start acting like we're members of Team Rocket instead of puny little twerps. Let's get a move on…" She picked up her feet stiffly and mechanically, forcing them to walk across the creaky wooden dock. James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet almost immediately did the same and followed her lead into Viridian Forest on their journey to reach Team Rocket Headquarters. However, during their walk there, all three members of the trio kept painfully silent, using their eyes to communicate with one another:

 _Jessie?_

 _Yes James?_

 _Something… BIG… is going to happen… And… I have a feeling it's not something good…_

After hours of walking in never-ending darkness and the bitter cold, Jessie, James, Meowth, Wobbuffet, and Nanu finally arrived at the towering iron gates of Team Rocket Headquarters. Nanu walked up to the intercom and pressed the button, activating some phone in one of the offices inside the massive building.

"What's the password" a commanding female voice barked harshly over the speaker. Jessie knew this voice all to well.

"Ugh…" She scoffed, "Wendy…"

"I figured…" James whispered back.

"At least it ain't Cassidy…" Meowth mumbled.

Nanu turned to Jessie and James frantically, "Anybody remember the password?"

"What password?" Jessie asked, slightly exasperated, "If there was a password, witchy Wendy never told us what it was. And you can't remember what it is?"

"Jessie, I retired from a life of crime and joined Alola's police force nearly thirty years ago. You think I'd remember…"

"I haven't got all day." Wendy hissed from the intercom.

Nanu sighed and pressed the button once more to activate the microphone, "Look, I'm here to speak to Giovanni about something."

"Shall I tell him who's calling?"

"Tell him this is Senior Agent Nanu."

Upon Nanu's introduction, Wendy immediately came back over the intercom to apologize for her previously rude behavior and never pressed the button to open the automated gates so hard in her entire career.

"No need to apologize, agent." Nanu replied, smirking slightly, pleased that just by saying his name he had made a high-ranking Team Rocket agent intimidated by him, "Thank you."

"I-it's not trouble at all, s-sir. I wish you and Giovanni a successful meeting."

They walked through to the other side, recognizing that they were now officially in Team Rocket's territory.


	10. Chapter 9

After a short five- or ten-minutes wandering around the dark, soundless halls of Team Rocket HQ, Nanu and the infamous Rocket quartet arrived at the massive doorway to Giovanni's private meeting room. The door was almost twice as tall and the automated fence that surrounded the building, and was painted a regal red with the organization's iconic red 'R' logo in white, making it look like Jessie's and James's uniforms, but inverted. On opposite sides of the door, two larger-than-life snarling Persian statues, presumably made from solid gold, stood guard as their piercing eyes seemed to watch the group's every move. Nobody even dared to move a muscle, until Nanu volunteered to brave the beasts. He slowly raised his shaky, wrinkled, fist to the door, but before it even could make contact, Giovanni's voice growled through a nearby intercom: "No need to continue, agent. Come in."

He called him 'agent'. Nanu felt both invigorated and infuriated at Giovanni assigning him that title. It caused him to hesitate for a second, looking back at Jessie and James behind him with innocent eyes, before they motioned for him to enter the room without them. He accepted their command, and walked into the room, his eyes gazing down at the blood-red carpet beneath him.

Giovanni smiled: "Agent Nanu, _so_ very good to finally see you again after all these years." He slowly reached his thick hand for him to shake. Nanu did so, slowly, almost like it was a question.

"My, you seem nervous today, agent Nanu." Giovanni evilly chuckled, making Nanu jump a little and his skin crawl. It was terrifying to listen to Giovanni laugh, as Giovanni is, indeed, a terrifying man. Even though he was much younger than Nanu, he still felt intimidated by him.

"I guess you could say that, sir." Nanu mumbled a little.

Giovanni laughed again. "Now now, Nanu, there's no need to be nervous. You may be a police officer now, but there's still quite a bit of Team Rocket blood in your veins. Just tell your supervisor that you're doing a favor for an old friend, that's all. Now, before we get started, I believe you owe me a little something."

Nanu paused for a brief second before remembering what he had explicitly told him to bring during one of their phone calls, "Oh, yes, of course." Nanu reached into his pocket and presented Giovanni with a rolled-up piece of paper. He opened them swiftly and read them with hungry, eager eyes.

"Yes, yes, this is exactly what I needed." Giovanni said, still looking down and examining every word on the slip of paper. After a few seconds, he looked up and grinned at Nanu, "Excellent work, Nanu. You've proven to me that you're still one of the best hackers Team Rocket has ever seen. Nobody else here on base could have possibly done as well as you with finding a loophole in the Aether Foundation's private research server to gain research on Cosmog. I knew I could count on you for giving me exactly what I want."

"It didn't take much. I work for the Alola PD; I have the ability to access virtually every computer in Alola. Grant it, I can't do it legally without probable cause, but you did beg me ever so nicely to doing your bidding once again, so I made an exception." Nanu mumbled.

"You flatter me, Nanu. You really do." Giovanni chuckled, taking a seat in his armchair at the head of the long, wooden table, "But in all seriousness, thank you. This is exactly the kind of information we need in order to carry out the first phase of our operation."

"With all due respect, Giovanni, now that I'm here, would you kindly inform me what this 'operation' is, and why you needed such information on such an incredibly weak Pokémon?"

"My dearest Nanu, did you not read the data you collected before handing it to me? If you did, you would know that Cosmog is quite the opposite of weak. In fact, this creature has the ability-"

Before Giovanni could finish, a loud crash and several shrieks and moans of pain could be heard from across the room. Giovanni and Nanu turned around and noticed that Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet had fallen through the door and landed on top of one another like dominos.

"YOU FOUR?!" the duo yelled, "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

They slowly picked themselves off the ground as James stupidly replied in the phoniest surprised voice he could manage: "Wait a minute… this isn't the cafeteria."

"You IDIOTS! You were SUPPOSED to keep me covered from BEHIND the door! Didn't you tell me in Viridian that the boss doesn't exactly want you to be here?!"

Giovanni looked at Nanu as harshly as the Persian statues outside. "They're with you?" he growled.

Nanu's stomach dropped. He felt compelled to lie, however, what good would that do? Giovanni was already upset with him, and contrary to the fact that lying was considered honorable to the organization, Giovanni hated being lied to face-to-face. Instead, he took a deep breath in, let it out, looked Giovanni right in the eyes and let out a sincere "yes. They're with me."

Giovanni looked none to pleased. He grabbed Nanu by the shoulder and pulled him close to him, "Why would you bring them with you? This was supposed to be _our_ project. Nobody else even knows that I've been planning this operation, and they weren't supposed to know until I got my hands on a Cosmog. Of all the Rocket agents I sent to Alola, why them?"

"Uh, we can still hear you, you know!" Jessie griped, crossing her arms over her chest and trying to control her temper as best as she could, "And for the record, we were the _only_ agents you sent to Alola, remember?"

Giovanni paused, "Oh yeah. I forgot about that…"

"Besides, it was Nanu's idea ta schlep us around Kanto, anyway." Meowth grumbled.

 _WOOOOOOOB-BUFFET!_

"Thanks for throwing me under the bus, fur brain!" Nanu hissed.

"Agents, _please._ " Giovanni roared, taking a seat in his armchair and staring at the group of them, "Please. I am losing my patience. Agents Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet; you are dismissed. I would like to continue to speak with agent Nanu alone, if you please. This business does not concern you in the least."

"For the record, sir, we already know exactly what you're talking about, and it _is_ our business." Jessie replied scathingly.

"From the little Nanu told us, this project concerns _all_ of Team Rocket, and I personally think it's a crying shame that you've just been keeping it to yourself all this time." James added.

"Those few small rolled up pieces of paper in your hands contain the blueprints for Team Rocket's success…"

"This is to further our organization, after all the failures we've been faced with. And if you keep them to yourself, only so much will get done, if anything at all, and Team Rocket will only continue to fail."

"There's power in numbers, boss. Isn't that why all Rocket agents are assigned in duos or trios instead of completing missions alone?"

"Without us, you might as well dismiss us all and call your plans off."

Giovanni was floored. Ever since he hired Jessie and James, he never once heard them say something as compelling and intelligent as what had just come out of their mouths. In some ways, those seemingly incompetent goobers were right for once!

"Come on, Meowth, let's go." Jessie commanded, as she stood up from her chair and followed James's lead back to the front door of the room.

"N-now wait just a second!" Giovanni called out to them, raising his hand slightly in order to get their attention, "You're absolutely right. There is no use trying to keep this a private matter. Please, do stay for our discussion. In fact, that reminds me, I have a job for you to complete for me."

The foursome turned around.

"We're listening…" James replied.

"How much did your hear about the rare Pokémon that is needed in order to begin the process of the operation, Cosmog through the door?"

"We hoid a'nuff." Meowth added.

"Good. Now, as of right now, I am not currently in possession of such a Pokémon, as I have been much too busy to seek one out myself. What I have recently heard, however, is that there is one residing in one of the laboratory wings in the synthetic island of Aether Paradise in the Alola Region. With that said, I would very much like for you to break into the building and steal it for me."

Jessie's, James's, and Meowth's eyes lit up. This was it: their chance for an opportunity to steal one of the rarest and most powerful Pokémon currently known, and their opportunity to prove to the boss that they were not the incompetent screw-offs he considered them to be. However, this moment of eagerness and surprise quickly faded. The quartet knew that the boss was infamous for assigning them seemingly-important missions just so that he would not have to tolerate them for a while, and this could have quite possibly been another one of his cruel tricks.

"Are… You sure?" James asked, his voice sounding very suspicious of Giovanni's intentions.

Giovanni smiled: "My dear James, I am positive."

James's uncertain face morphed into an excited and twisted grin. He began to let out one of his signature laughs, Jessie and Meowth following his lead.

"Thank you, boss sir!" Jessie replied, bowing to Giovanni and Nanu, "We won't let you down."

"I know you won't. Now, go out there and catch me a Cosmog!"

"Sir yes sir!"

 _WOOOOOOBBFFET!_

Upon their boss' command, the overly-enthusiastic Rocket agents went on their way, skipping and giggling through the halls like schoolchildren at recess, until they disappeared from out of Giovanni's line of sight.

Once they were gone, Giovanni began to laugh hysterically. Chills shot down Nanu's back.

"What? What's so funny? What did you do to them?" Nanu demanded like a frustrated parent.

"Oh, it's nothing." Giovanni chuckled, dismissing himself, "It's just that I've already assigned the Cosmog mission to my new squadron of specialty agents known as the Matori Matrix."

"The… Matori Matrix?" Nanu asked.

"Precisely. The Matrix is my secret weapon for these kinds of missions. All of them are ruthless; skilled in both battling Pokémon and hand-to-hand combat, and will absolutely will not stop until my needs are completely met." Giovanni added, "Just like you, you know."

Nanu went pale. Once again, Giovanni was appealing to the Rocket agent side of him he tried to stifle upon joining the Alolan Police Force. What on earth was than man trying to get at with him? Regardless, that had to wait. There was still another major question that needed to be asked of him regarding Jessie and James:

"Wait a second… when it was just the two of us originally, you told me that nobody knew of the Cosmog mission other than you and I… You just directly _lied_ to Jessie and James, didn't you?" he growled.

Giovanni laughed again, "Well, in technicalities, yes, but can you blame me? Those idiots can never do anything right. They still haven't even managed to capture that supposed 'rare Pikachu' they've been chasing after for years. They're a nuisance; four little pests that I have to put up with day in and day out. And how do I manage? Well, I try to make them feel important for a change. I give them missions to do where the entire weight of the world is on top of their shoulders, and when they're failing miserably, I send in someone to do their job for them. But they're not _complete_ ignoramuses: they _did_ remind me that there is indeed 'power in numbers'; now I know that sending the Matori Matrix is a good idea!"

Nanu nearly blew a gasket. Sure, Jessie, James, Meowth, and Wobbuffet could be extremely annoying at times, but at the same token, they seemed to sincerely care about furthering the mission of Team Rocket any way they could. On top of everything else, Acerola, his beloved niece, adored them dearly. She saw something in them that not even he could see, and because of that, he began to almost see them as family. But before he could say anything, Giovanni interrupted his thoughts:

"Oh, before we continue with our discussion, there is a little something I'd like you to have." He reached under the table, pulled out a large black box, and slid it over to Nanu across the table top. He took a look at the unexpected gift, placed one hand on the side of the box, and used the other to cautiously lift the lid. Inside was his old uniform, weathered a little from presumably being tucked away in a storage closet somewhere, but the signature emblem emblazoned on the uniform shirt's chest was still as fiery red as ever.

"The maid found it when she was going through my closet." Giovanni replied, "I thought you might like to have it, at least for a little while."

Nanu's jaw dropped slightly, his eyes transfixed on the wrinkled old Team Rocket uniform in front of him. Looking at that thing brought back so many memories and emotions: he was scared of it, yet he coveted it. Ashamed of it, yet so very proud that it was once his. He looked up at him with the same look of innocence he gave to Jessie and James before he first entered the conference room and replied, "You can't be serious."

"No, Nanu, I don't think you know how serious I'm being. I want you to have it. When I first asked you to come to Kanto and meet with me, I thought that no matter how much I begged and pleaded with you, you would still ultimately turn down my offer, but much to my surprise, you didn't. Nanu, can't you see? You were your best self here! You reached your fullest potential here! And yet, you left the Team Rocket life all for working some silly night shift at a police station."

"Giovanni, I hope you realize that my days of being your… your… slave… are over!" Nanu growled, "I have a _family_ now, and I'm happy with the job I have. I don't want my little niece to know that her uncle is or was ever a criminal."

"Oh really?" The brown-haired gangster sneered, "When we spoke together on the phone, you didn't sound happy, Nanu. Now that you're here, you sound much different. You're happier, here, Nanu. Stop denying who you really are."

"Boss, er… Giovanni! I…"

"Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes sir…"

"Now… Will you please assist the Matori Matrix and I in furthering the mission of Team Rocket?"

Nanu looked down at his old uniform in the box once more, let out a long sigh. He knew he couldn't fight with Giovanni any longer, and in reality, the statement he made about him being happier in a life of crime than in a life of crime prevention was true. He knew now what he had to do. He turned around to face Giovanni, allowed his eyes to lock on his, and replied: "Yes."

Giovanni grinned, "Glad you finally came to your senses… Welcome back to Team Rocket, agent Nanu."

Back in Viridian Forest, the Rocket Quartet continued to sing and dance and skip throughout the woods. They were more than overjoyed that the boss had given them such an important mission to compete, and their heads were completely lost in la la land. However, once they reached the dock, Meowth's enthusiasm faded.

"Meowth, what's wrong?" Jessie asked, her voice still a little sing-songy.

"Gois… WE DON'T HAVE ANYTING TO GET HOME!"


	11. Intermission

"Jessie, are you SURE you want to go through with this?" James asked as he slowly but surely made his way over another laser beam, "Maneuvering through this hallway is like the world's weirdest game of limbo... Mixed with hopscotch..."

"Of course I do, James." Jessie growled, her head snapping around to stare her partner right in the eyes, "The boss has _finally_ given us a worthwhile mission, and I don't want to let him down."

James signed as he ducked and did a Frankenstein walk somehow simultaneously, "I suppose so..." he simply replied as he prepared to complete the same move again.

"Wat's da matta, Jimmy boy?" Meowth sneered, following his master's lead, "Dontcha want da bawse ta be proud of us fer once?"

"I don't know anymore, Meowth. I sincerely don't know..."

Jessie looked back at him with that same harsh gaze as she made her way closer to the door to the laboratory where Cosmog was supposed to be kept: "What do you mean, 'you don't know'?"

The lavender-haired agent gulped, "I mean, I _want_ to finally do something right and not fail for a change as much as you both do, but..."

"But what, exactly?"

"Jessie, I feel like... like I'm betraying Acerola..."

Jessie stopped dead in her tracks. She had almost completely forgotten Acerola even existed and that she and James made a promise to her that they would report directly back to her once they found out what was "wrong" with her uncle before her partner reminded her. They did just that, but considering the fact her original assumption that Nanu was affiliated with Team Rocket was correct, she got caught up in her lust for success and power. Despite her keeping the main points of her promise to the little girl she once adored, using her and her uncle's past as a means for her own gain dismissed it. She didn't just break her promise- she shattered it. But what could she do now? She already agreed to completing the Cosmog mission, and her ultimate duty was to Giovanni and Team Rocket, not some eleven-year-old whom she'd only known for less than a month. She took another step over the final laser beam and arrived at the door. She paused again, took a deep breath, and looked at James.

"I know." she simply replied, "I do too... But we _have_ to keep going. For Team Rocket."

"But, Jessie..."

"James... Don't... don't try to be a hero. You're no good at it..." She gingerly pulled a bobby pin out of her hair and picked the lock with ease. Once the door was finally unlocked, she finished her original thought, "...And neither am I. Are you coming in or not?"

Feeling defeated, James signed and simply nodded his head.

"Good." Jessie replied, "Let's do this."

As she crossed the threshold connecting the hallway to the lab, all she could think about was Acerola.


	12. Chapter 10

It was a beautiful Alolan morning on Melemele Island. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze that swept through the palm trees, making their fronds dance along to the beat of the nearby ocean. Wild Rowlet and Pikipek fluttered nearby, pecking hungrily at the plentiful piles of apples and Pinap berries that lay at the bases of fruit trees, as Alolan Rattatas skittered and scampered around the blooming bushes. It was the perfect day and everything seemed right with the world: at the very least, according to Ash Ketchum, his new friend Acerola, and his beloved Pikachu partner- as they peaceful walked along the dirt road that lead in the direction of the Pokemon School.

"Thanks again for for letting me crash at your place while Uncle Nanu is on his business trip, Ash! I'm SO excited to begin today's lesson at the Pokemon School!" the perky goth girl smiled, taking a breath of the fresh morning sea air.

"Me too! And don't thank me!" Ash laughed, "Thank the professors! It's their house after all. I'm every bit as much as a guest as you are!"

 _Pika Pika!_

Acerola let out a giggle, "Oh yeah, I almost completely forgot." She paused and took another deep breath, "Ahhh, I just _love_ the smell of the morning air on Melememe. Growing up in the absolute middle of nowhere on Ula-Ula nowhere near the ocean, I don't get to experience this often, so this is a real treat. At the same token though, I'm kinda grateful because if I got to experience something like this every day, I think I'd begin to take it for granted."

Ash smiled, "I know what you mean. I grew up in Kanto: Pallet Town, to be exact- which was in the middle of the countryside. There's not a lot to look at there, besides maybe some distant mountains, so every time I get to go to a new region and I get to explore a huge city, or a vast dessert, or smell the ocean air, I get some sort of thrill, y'know? I don't exactly know how to describe it to you, but it's a good feeling- refreshing, even. And like you said, if I had the privilege of experiencing something like this every day, I don't think I'd appreciate it as much as I do."

"Uh, Ash, while that's all fine and dandy, I _think_ you meant 'desert' and not 'dessert'."

"Ah geez, Acerola! Give me a break!" the Kantonian boy blushed awkwardly and chuckled.

"I'm sure you would like to 'explore a vast dessert' right now," she laughed.

"You better believe I would! I'm starving!"

"Did you even have breakfast this morning?"

"I did!"

"Really? What you have?"

"Professor Burnett made some eggs and toast this morning and I had what she had left over in the fridge. And two sausages... And a bowl of fruit salad."

Acerola was practically howling by now, "How could you _possibly_ still be hungry, Ash?"

"What can I say, Acerola? I just a guy who likes to eat!"

 _Pi-Pika-chu..._

By the time Ash had made his final comment, they had already reached the front gates to the Pokemon School and walked through to the schoolyard, where the found their classmates standing in a small group, lead by Professor Kukui and Principal Oak. Class wasn't typically held outside first thing in the morning, so Ash had suspected something different was going on, but as he approached the crowd, he had noticed that his fellow Pokemon School students didn't look very happy. If anything, they were all as anxious as Wimpods.

"H-hey guys! Acerola and I have arrived! Are we having class outside today?" Ash asked innocently, trying to lighten the seemingly heavy mood.

"I hate to say it Ash, but no." Professor Kukui said with a low growl, "And by the looks of it, we're not going to be having class at all today."

Ash, Acrola, and the entirety of his class jumped back and let out a short, simultaneous gasp, prompting them to talk out of turn, asking a variety of questions as to why school had been cancelled for today.

"S-settle down, kids! Remain calm!" Principal Oak said, trying to placate the restless sea of children, "Everybody please, one at a time! If you have any questions, please hold them until Professor Burnett gets back. She knows more about what's going on than Kukui and I do!"

And just as Principal Oak thought he wouldn't be able to handle the anxious crowd any longer, as if on cue, Professor Burnett appeared in the front door of the schoolhouse and sprinted as fast as she could over to Ash and his classmates, followed by a man and a woman in white lab coats, and a woman in a long white dress, bearing a striking resemblance to Lillie.

"Principal Oak!" she shouted as she seemed to leap through the air, closer to the crowds.

"Burnett! Wicke! Faba! Lusamine! What's the situation?" Oak replied with a tremble in his voice.

"Is it as bad as we had originally thought?" Kukui pleaded.

"Oh it's as bad alright" she replied to her husband.

"If anything, it's actually worse." the woman resembling Lillie added fearfully.

"What do you mean "worse"?" Oak and Kukui shouted simultaneously.

"Follow Faba and Wicke- they'll explain everything." Burnette added, directing them into the school building.

"CAN SOMEBODY _PLEASE_ TELL US WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Kiawe roared over the sea of talking, prompting a temporary silence among both the children and the adults.

"Yeah!" Mallow added, "We've been out here for hours wondering what in the world has been going on in there!"

"Children, please, this is very serious official business," the green-haired man in a lab coat informed them, "We don't even completely know what's been going on so-"

"Oh Faba, hush. These children have every right to know what's going on," the purple-haired woman scolded her colleague, "As far as I'm concerned, they're granted access to see what's going on... I-if that's okay with you of course, Miss Lusamine..."

The woman in the white dress nodded: "You're right, Wicke. This matter does happen to concern them, so they might as well come with us." She cleared her throat. "Children, I'm Miss Lusamine, head of the Aether Foundation- Alola's own Pokemon conservation society- and these are my colleagues, Mister Faba, and Miss Wicke. We are here today because we had recently received word that the computer in Professor Burnett's office here at the Pokemon School had recently been hacked to obtain information from our database via remote access... and because this data was accessed, one of our resident Pokemon has been stolen..."

"...And, unfortunately..." Professor Kukui added, "You're all suspects."


End file.
